


Utter Lunacy

by InsaneScriptist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: A wild Daemon has Appeared!, Awesome!Aria, But he's still a terrible Vigilante, Chikusa likes tea, Dino loves his family, Draconic!Xanxus, Druid!Neville, Enma is so sweet, F/M, Gen, Giotto's something of an idiot, Hibari becomes a national hero, Loli!Aria, Luna is terrible to Kawahira, Mirrors are wonderful tools, MoD!Luna, Mukuro has an Ethics Committe, Mukuro is a mother hen, Neville has strange plants, Primo's Impossible Quest, Shark gives good advice, Squalo makes for a good big brother, Talbot is strange, The previous Vongola Bosses aren't saints, Very AU, Vongola history is much edited in some areas, and adorable, be glad I cut most of the creepy out, he just wanted to bite the interlopers to death, he kinda regrets this, he's only a little creepy, some things you don't want to know after all., truly is Tsuna's BFF
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-18 05:58:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 55,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3558710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneScriptist/pseuds/InsaneScriptist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the white demon with angel wings took over Magical Britain few were left still fighting. Luna is captured only to later win her own private war. What it means for the future is anyone's guess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Warnings** : AU!HP, EWE, HP!Character Deaths, AU!KHR, Alt!Byakuran, torture, physical violence, implied rape, Crazy!Byakuran, KHR!Character Deaths and more that I'm probably forgetting. Why am I writing this?

* * *

"War is hell and all that, but it has something to recommend it. It wipes out all the small nuisances of peace-time, like nargles for all that wackspurts are everywhere." Luna Lovegood declared as she was in the process of breaking out of the evil angel's current base in Britain, despite the injuries she had gained in the process of being captured.

It wasn't that hard as when he took over the Ministry of Magic's underground building he had also destroyed a lot of the spells woven into it. Spells such those to keep prisoners where they were supposed to be. Spells that if it were peace time would have kept her trapped.

The restraints and cell were easy enough to get out of. A simple use of wandless magic, an opening spell that she had practiced repeatedly so that she could use it on any physical lock. She had learned her lesson during the Blood War that dominated the latter half of her Hogwarts years. She would not be kept prisoner by magic or by technological devilry.

Fighting the minions was not what she wanted to do, but had to in order to get out of what was formerly the Ministry of Magic. They outnumbered her and the few other prisoners here that she let out. Those prisoners were practically worthless as fighters, but as saboteurs and distractions they might be worth something.

She had learned a lot from Harry, Hermione and Ron. One of which was to create as much chaos as possible to cover your escape. She lacked a dragon to ride out of here on though. The Ministry frowned on keeping a dragon as a pet anyway.

She unfortunately had learned not to emulate their mercy. The Golden Trio were all dead now. The main leaders of the only active rebellious group in Britain that she knew of were her, Neville and Ginny; others helped but a great many had been killed. Not that she even knew where Neville and Ginny were now, although she had her suspicions. Dumbledore's Army had once operated out of Hogwarts, but that option was lost once the magic of those colorful and dreadful flames had been turned on the wards. They had barely saved the great Hogwart's Library.

Harry had died during that battle, as had Ron. Harry had asked Luna to disarm him before that battle for reasons Luna wasn't sure of but was sure related to the Deathly Hallows. Hermione had been expecting her first child and so had evacuated the castle, the infamous cloak keeping her hidden and the entire library in her beaded purse. It was in that library that they had found the mention about those flames.

Hermione had found out of course. They were a type of soul magic that most of the Wizarding World would never be able to use, as they didn't have the will and magic tended to respond first to emotional distress of any sort. It was a type of soul magic that could even be used in theory by even muggles. The flaming soul magic was nothing foul like necromancy but it could and had been weaponized; Hermione had died when someone had used one against her despite how cute the animal was. Now that power was taking over the world.

Luna had later returned to the Forbidden Forest and summoned 'death's stone' while under the cloak. She then meandered over to Dumbledore's tomb to make sure the wand was still buried with him before she took the wand and broke it over her knee. She had then apparated to the coast and tossed the stone into the sea. Then she passed the cloak on to Ginny who had turned into 'Mama' for a disturbingly large number of orphans the rebels had taken in; first was Teddy, then came others as they were found and born including Hermione's child.

Luna hadn't noticed any difference having held all three of the Deathly Hallows, but maybe the title of 'Master of Death' was just human arrogance or needed all three items to be used by the same person. Even then, it seemed to be nothing more than superstition.

It hadn't made Harry immortal after all.

Unfortunately, their enemies weren't as stupid and arrogant as the Death Eaters had been and had already blocked all entrances and exits except down. One of the few wards they had managed to use with those soulful flames was anti-apparation; not the modern kind that would bounce witches and wizards but the older kind that would splinch them viciously. The other ward they could use was anti-portkey as portkeys just didn't work. Not that many people knew how to make portkeys, but she made sure to learn and then teach it to Ginny and Neville. It gave them plenty of mobility at times, right up until they enemies learned to ward against it; they had learned to find, attack and kill those that could make those wards if they wanted escape should they be surrounded.

Magical transportation for everyone was particularly crippled when the Ministry had been invaded and they lost the floo network. Floo had been proprietary in Britian, with only one firm having the patent and only the government capable of setting up a network, so it would be impossible to recreate.

So down Luna went, feeling remarkably like Alice in a twisted wonderland. Level Six was also blocked and so Luna collapsed the ceiling above those waiting for her and hoped it would delay them. Then she put a few magical can-trip traps behind her as a determent to follow. That was the extent of the magic she could use wandlessly and the dropping part of a ceiling was powered mostly by desperation.

Her feet took her to first the time chamber. There she had noticed a hidden time turner; it was under wards that would keep muggles away but they were so subtle that those technological devils hadn't noticed yet. One of the Unspeakables must have made and hidden to prevent misuse be when those same devils were taking over Britain. Luna wrapped the long chain necklace around her waist like a belt, and the wards were attached to the device, so it would remain unseen even as she wore it. She hoped. Muggle-repelling wards and notice-me-nots only worked so well...

Hoping to mislead her pursuers further she went into the Death Chamber, and ignored the murmurs from it. She had ignored them the first time so she did so again. One, two, six hours back. Enough time for most of the enforcers to be out, fighting herself hours earlier.

Then the white devil appeared as if he knew to be waiting. Luna sighed.

"Taking over the world must be dreadfully boring if you already know what to do and how to take out all your enemies." She replied, suddenly so very tired.

"Oh, already figured this out? How very astute of you." The white devil himself said.

"It wasn't that hard to notice, not if you look at the world from the right angle." She replied.

"Many people across numerous worlds, all of whom are noted for their intellect don't figure it out until told. How did you, ignorant little witch?"

"I don't listen to public opinion, fake angel."

"Public opinion?" The fake angel laughed.

"One should respect public opinion in so far as it is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny." The witch informed him.

"That does make sense little moon-child."

"Moon-child? I'm older than seventeen years of age."

"But not quite eighteen yet, either, now are you witch?"

"I suppose that makes me underage by non-magical law. One would think a person that has no problem taking over the world by force wouldn't care for that."

"You're quite right. I don't."

Negotiations have clearly failed.

So it comes to a fight and they fight.

* * *

It's a fight Luna knows she's bound to lose. She has no wand because it broke in the confrontation her past self is having now, she lacks the physical strength and training the faux angel has and she wasn't in optimal condition to begin with. Collapsing a ceiling isn't easy for all that it was semi-deliberate and more desperation that she can physically feel.

Fighting a losing rebellion means a number of nights spent hungry even if magic can be used to keep clean, warm and hidden. That's not even taking into account those boxes that operate on those damnable flames and all the secrets those same boxes hold.

This didn't really seem to matter much to the white devil.

Their fight was as much physical as it was with words.

Then Luna realized that he was flirting with her.

It was a sickening realization, but it made Luna fight all the harder and reach not for her own panicking magic but the strength of her very soul itself.

Being able to use those same devilish and colorful flames doesn't help either since she doesn't know how to fight with them.

He just laughs at her efforts.

* * *

Luna is prisoner once again. She's very well practiced at it now. The humiliation, the degradation, the utter lack of rights and privacy. The time-turner is gone; she has no idea where but she hopes that it fell off while they were fighting. Her hips are boyish enough for that to happen.

It's also for the same reason.

Luna doesn't think along the same lines a normal person does. It makes her so very brilliant at planning strategies, tactics and rebellion. She enjoyed being a complete non-conformist. Still does.

In other words, 'Your version of sanity bores me.'

Partly for the same reason.

It allows her to think unorthodox plans, bring victory from the jaws of defeat and dance through destruction to rain death upon those who face her. That is Luna's true genius.

She is still however, a young woman, barely past girlhood.

But a hardened prisoner, nonetheless.

She knows how to endure pain, cruelty and the gnaw of the unknown at the mind. She knows how to avoid the worst of the drugs and can use magic to negate them enough to remain clear-eyed and steely-hearted.

The Death Eaters had taught her all of that, first at Hogwarts and then in that dreadful basement.

This was a repeat of that made worse.

Pure blood doesn't grant her any sort of protection here.

* * *

The fake angel was brilliant in his madness and found her to be a fascination. Not just in her steadfast refusal to join him or in her ability to work around his drugs so she wasn't forced to join him either. The drugs weren't potions but his insanity was still genius and so a number of them tried to have effects like a number of potions. Unctuous Unction was an easy enough potion to make but despite his devilry and mad genius he still hadn't managed to make that.

She doesn't want to think and believe he is her friend by the influence of outside forces.

Instead he had to rely on more old fashion methods.

Kindness.

The Death Eaters hadn't taught her how to resist that.

She's still going to learn.

* * *

The white devil is named Byakuran.

He's utterly brilliant, completely isolated by it. No one can keep up with it.

Luna is special because she can guess where exactly his mind will run to next. Its not exactly that hard for anyone that cared to look and not turn away, keeping themselves intentionally ignorant in a futile attempt to spare themselves further pain. That sort of brilliance burns those who look and aren't prepared; it causes them to bow their heads and worship.

He fixates on that, starved for emotional connections beyond the worship of his subordinates.

Byakuran is not an angel or a devil; just an utterly pitiful man with an astounding sense of genius taking all he can from the world to find what he longs for even though he doesn't know what it is he's even searching for.

He doesn't know what he's looking for -his mind is too brilliant for his heart to be heard- but on an instinctual level he knows.

It doesn't temper his cruelty in the least.

* * *

His subordinates follow his every demand without question.

This issue is this:

'Without question' sounds an awful lot like 'without support.'

The problem with following, only following, was that the one in front was always alone.

And he's breaking there.

* * *

Luna was a pureblood witch, and had only passingly interacted with muggles in the village near where she grew up. Even when traveling on various expeditions with her father, they were either in the wilderness of magically protected lands or in magical districts.

Despite all the colorful fire, the Millefiore live without magic. It's all technology.

Even those amazing dreadful boxes are technology.

And he's letting her learn about them and everything.

It's his kindness, indulging her curiosity.

It's his mistake too.

* * *

Luna is a Ravenclaw and enjoys learning if not education. Learning was optional and enjoyable while education is something that has to be endured, with annoying classmates, bullies and endless homework and social expectations from both people her own age and adults who should know better. She spent years friendless, mocked and tormented by those wearing blue and bronze and any number of other colors.

In many ways she's utterly ignorant of everything not-magical. It makes her realize how much she has been sequestered in the magical parts of the world. How safe. Even Voldemort was safer; she had some protection for being born a pure blood. Some value in being a hostage against her father.

Her ignorance also entertains him. He likes to 'educate' her.

She doesn't like those lessons.

Luna still remains Luna.

* * *

Not a whore.

Not slut, cunt or any of the other vile words he says into her ears.

This too, she learns to endure.

* * *

Luna is kept captive but she still manages to meet a number of his subordinates.

Some are those she is passingly familiar with as enemies. They taunt her, but it isn't anything she hasn't heard before. Another is a young girl, her eyes and heart dulled by drugs that keep her pliant. Those same drugs that keep her subordinates hostage to her deluded self.

The ones she hates the most are not those same flame using mafiosi -a new word to her that she comes to detest- but the dusky skinned, eerily alike women with pink hair.

They are homunculi. Dolls shaped to look like women, programmed with a purpose and far older than they appear.

They belong to a mafia famiglia by the name of Cervello, sub-servant to the Milliefiore.

Luna knows them by a different name, an ancient Greek one; the Cervello were created to study and record history, charged by a secret society of both magical and non-magical intellectuals and innovators long before Rome was even thought of, much less made an empire.

Luna knows this because her mother once belonged to that same society.

And those dolls gone wild killed her for it, not an experimental spell.

Only wild things bite the hands that feeds them.

For how tame and pretty the dolls appear, they're still utterly wild.

* * *

Worse are the debates as he tries to sway her to his views.

They rarely end well.

* * *

"All power is the same. Magic. Physical strength. Economic strength. Political strength. It all serves a single purpose-it gives its possessor a broader spectrum of choices. It creates alternative courses of action." He states.

She tries to sway him to her views.

"All power is not the same. It comes with responsibilities. The first of which is learning how to use it wisely, which include when, where and why to use it."

"Oh, is this an attempt to sway me to stop taking over the world? To let it 'right' itself after I have already succeeded?" He jeers, the purple tattoo under his eye looks like a trio of daggers.

Luna can only sigh at the knowledge that it is likely that everyone she knew is likely dead.

This knowledge does not break her, for she is not defeated. Just in another stalemate in a losing battle. Who is losing isn't clear, but while Luna is often bloody, her head is not bowed. Her path and eyes are clear despite the white devil's blinding brilliance.

"No, this is to remind myself that words have power."

"Are you expecting me to say 'sorry for killing your friends?' That's not going to happen. Even magic cannot restore the dead. Nothing does." He laughs. It is full of bitterness.

"I am aware of that." She states.

"Then what is your point? What are you so afraid of?" He taunted.

"I'm sorry." She says quite suddenly, overtaken by a surge of Gryffindor bravery. It has to be a gift from Ginny. Neville was quite nice but he had never given her gifts before. Ginny on the other hand had often given her things, even when they weren't really friends anymore.

"Oh, like those words, 'I'm sorry' are magic words, witch? Doesn't your kind prefer bastardized Latin? Whatever happened to pretty please?"

"I'm sorry," she repeats, voice steady and eyes steely, "that you're so confused, lost and lonely that the only method you have to find anything you long for is violence despite your remarkable intellect."

He throws her against the wall and pins her there by her neck. She chokes as he breathes hot and heavy. Her head hurts, its hard to breathe and she has to stand on her tip-toes or else she'll hang herself on his hand.

"Sorry? Sorry! Lonely?!" He laughs bitterly, brokenly and Luna knows her words have hit their mark. "I'm sorry too. I was born too soon, so those that would even attempt to fight me won't do so. I've even subverted them to my cause. To follow me."

He's crying now, salty tears to prove he's human despite the wings he often wears and the devil-may-care attitude that goes along with it.

He carelessly tosses her towards another wall.

Luna feels something in her arm crack from impact.

It hurts but she refuses to cry. The pain of a broken arm is nothing compared to Bellatrix's torture curses.

The concussion on the other hand is something far different as the world splits into multiples before her eyes.

She refuses to call for help because it won't be given. Instead she picks herself up, balancing against the wall as she fights the nausea the concussion has given her. She eventually stumbles into the piece of furniture across from the weeping man.

Unwilling to let weeping angel have the last say, Luna draws on both herself and everything she is. Then, gently, like a mother to child she says to him, "I'm not sorry to have said that to you."

Then she passes out.

* * *

She wakes alive, in a well appointed room.

Luna tries not to be disappointed, but it's there. The white demon often lied, but the faux-angel did not especially when the truth served him better. Byakuran was the one that couldn't be trusted ever because he didn't know what he wanted and would lash out at everyone.

She is brought food by one of the Cervello.

Luna ignores it, thinking about dreams and innocence lost in a nonsensical fashion that her father taught to her that she had since surpassed him at. Greek legends, wizarding history and images connected to names all passed before her eyes in a blur.

She is not Psyche, who saw Eros' face.

Instead she is like Persephone, and he Hades but there is no weeping mother and concerned gods out to bring order to the world again. No Zeus to order his brother to return his young bride stolen from her mother for Zeus is dead, as is Athena. Ares is also lost, as is Hera and others.

Apollo is brilliant in his madness.

Except she is not Persephone for her mother was Pandora, not Demeter.

She is Luna, daughter of Xenophilius.

* * *

The Cervello bring her fruit this time and it is not drugged.

She eats even though she knows what happened to Persephone.

The murderous dolls are plotting her demise, even as they say otherwise to those they serve. They know she knows about them, their hidden history and the bid for freedom they made in murder.

Anyone who knew how to control them, to order them, was to be killed or otherwise neutralized.

Luna knows her mother wasn't the only one.

* * *

Byakuran avoids her.

It's understandable.

He's still human.

She caused him pain.

* * *

Luna reads.

She takes notes.

She understands.

She's still a prisoner.

* * *

Freedom is an illusion.

Happiness is a dream.

She is strangely content regardless.

* * *

She still fights when she's able. She doesn't have the ability or the knowledge to outright sabotage things from the inside.

It could be too easily traced to her.

Instead she fights on a different field and realm.

Magic isn't something Byakuran is interested in but she can manage a few subtle things that add up like grains of sand on a beach.

Human creations are so fragile and the human mind even more so.

What part of the workings of an Empire can she gum up today?

How can she do it so that it cannot be traced back to her?

* * *

Time is a strange thing to Luna. She knows it passes day by day, hour by hour but as a prisoner she has no sense of time beyond when meals are brought to her.

She knows there are days she goes hungry.

* * *

It's therefore not surprising that one day she wakes to find the genius in the bed she uses as hers, with his head using her body as a pillow.

It is his bed after all. She's wearing his clothes. She is his prisoner.

He does as he pleases, because it's all his.

Including her for all that she fights. She fights because while he has her body, he does not have her mind or her soul.

She will not let him have that.

He looks different sleeping.

She considers strangling him -he's still stronger. She considers breaking his neck -she doesn't know how. She considers poisoning him -the Cervello have removed all their poisoned gifts.

She considers using magic -she has no wand, and beyond a few tricks and desperation she cannot use wandless magic with any sort of reliability or lethality. She considers using flames -he's still better with them than she is.

Her hand is already reaching towards him.

It pets his hair.

He smiles in his sleep.

* * *

"You should eat more, little witch." Byakuran says as he watches her read between bites of marshmallows.

"Maybe if there were less drugs in the food." She replies.

She feels him frown, the air in the room moving to his will; the will that had destroyed her world and the rest of it too, all under his heel.

* * *

Her next meal is entirely not drugged for he knows and has known that those he uses on those he wishes to keep compliant don't work on her. They haven't since she learned to counter his medical brilliance with her innate magic.

Poison on the other hand is something else entirely.

Trapped as she is, she still hears about his rampage.

The Cervello disappear.

Good.

* * *

The Cervello are meant to be unbiased, but they still want and are threatened by her.

It makes them strangely human in some backward fashion; dolls imitating but not understanding.

Luna doesn't care about that.

Her plan is working.

The war is not lost, not while she still fights.

* * *

She remembers a quote.

"The two things no man can ever understand; Women and what makes all men complete damn fools over women."

Politics between women have always been dangerous in way men could never understand.

* * *

He's clingy and cruel countered by generous and affectionate.

She's still fighting.

She entertains the hope that she might be winning but realizes he's still to strong for that, for all that he's broken.

He is her superior in so many ways and she's a lonely prisoner.

The answer is grain by grain, chip by chip until his strength and will are in ruins like his empire.

* * *

An unexpected complication arises.

War is no place for a child.

Especially not her private war; she'll have to stop because she won't be like Dumbledore and turn a child into a weapon or a martyr. Especially not her child. Won't have him or her hate her because the child has been told lies about her. Small cruelties add up.

Harry Potter was such a lonely broken child.

The boy-who-lived was such a figure of noble suffering and chivalry.

That is not a fate to wish on her child for all that there is no prophecy and her enemy knows where she lives at his sufferance.

How? How? How? Circles around in her head.

No, she knows how, but why is nothing more than chance and circumstance.

* * *

He finds out about it and sticks close. His obsessive fascination with her is a mockery of love.

* * *

It's a blessing and a curse.

She waits to find out which one it really is.

* * *

Nature takes care of it for her.

She did nothing but miscarry.

It nearly kills her anyway.

* * *

He doesn't know that as a rule, witches and wizards tend to have less children because it's difficult for them to conceive. Some can't even manage it unless they're a certain age even if they're physically mature. He is a genius yet there are some things he has never bothered to learn or investigate.

It is even harder to carry to full term, especially should the mother be stressed.

Not necessarily because some lineages might be too close but because some lineages are incompatible. There was a reason why some Houses preferred to marry within the family; it was the only way to be certain of continuing the line.

So many purebloods have forgotten why the obsession over lineages began.

Luna knows because her mother told her.

Magic is not a natural human trait and there are so very many magical species out there, few of which can interbreed productively; at least initially.

* * *

He is again furious, convinced that it is anything but natural.

He assigns her a guard for when he's not with her.

He has handed her a weapon.

She smiles.

* * *

Her guard rarely speaks and prefers to sleep when and if it is possible. Luna out of discretion and survival instincts also stays silent. Constantly reading, learning about technology and the world outside of magic. What rules govern it, what natural laws occur when and how and how to measure it with math. Chemistry, psychology, physics and more.

Her magical knowledge is useless, especially without a wand; she acquires more knowledge of the mundane as she plans. Magic hasn't entirely been forgotten but...

Her war with Byakuran is a private one, but one fought with much patience.

She can and does outlast her guard's store of it.

* * *

His name is Xanxus and he is responsible for the destruction of the Vongola.

He pays lip-service loyalty to Byakuran. He knows that he owes Byakuran for bringing him and his mother out of the streets, out of poverty, and for giving him ways to become strong.

Xanxus is very bad at gratitude for those he does not respect and the white devil has recently lost it; how recently, Luna doesn't know. He is the only one to notice the resentment and rage that is her private war.

He's a fine weapon but not enough.

* * *

Grains of sand accumulate. Like calls to like.

She is not Persephone because she's going to carve her way out of the underworld -her prison- with her own will and knowledge.

She is the daughter of Pandora. Hope is her Demon.

* * *

Another rebellious servant of the faux-angel is called Mukuro. He's far younger than she is but just as jaded.

He is an illusionist, but Luna is quite comfortable to know and accept reality as it is, instead of what it isn't. Luna doesn't blind herself to reality.

His illusions are excellent but Luna does not fall for them. Then Mukuro makes them real and Luna breaks them.

She has no wand, but she still has magic. She has no ring, but she has a purpose.

It is enough.

* * *

Xanxus is surprisingly good with his hands. He is very adept with technology for all that he's very much a killer through and through. His mind is equally brilliant. Inhumanly so in some ways.

He smuggles her an empty box container. Two of them.

One he fills with Wrath.

It's her choice about what she wants.

She makes it.

* * *

Luna has grown far too used to the white devil's attentions.

He's still just as fascinated with her as ever.

It makes her plan so much simpler.

* * *

'Come into my parlor,' said the spider to the fly.

* * *

Luna is not a spider, but she has made a plan. Kept it secret from any cameras or recording devices or any curious loyally listening ears.

She learned cynicism from the Death Eaters too. To not trust the surface.

Appearances of a prison left alone and forgotten about are never true.

Especially when she's so personally important to all the various fragments of him.

Most important to that broken human part of him.

She plans on killing all of him.

* * *

Luna lacks a wand, but she has the steel in her soul that has allowed her to survive and even thrive despite years of captivity.

She has other weapons now, so magic, is a last resort except for getting there.

Luna has the perfect place in mind too, so all she needs to do is get him there.

A portkey would be easiest.

Apparation however requires no wand.

Most damning is that apparation has its limits.

How to convince the devil to bring them both to England? As close to London as possible?

* * *

Mukuro might be the age of a first year, and Xanxus maybe a few years older than her, but they're very good at fulfilling their parts.

The person that holds the wards to that particular base suffers a small accident; it's not even lethal, just enough to knock him out of it for a while under the guise that he annoyed Xanxus. Her guard's general ill temper makes the incident nothing out of the ordinary.

Mukuro re-writes the wards the swordsman holds and then the swordsman's mind.

The boy really is that good.

* * *

The Ministry of Magic has long since been abandoned and left to rot. It makes it perfect.

A perfect place to kill a man.

* * *

For all that he's a undeniably a devil, he's still so very human.

* * *

Xanxus signaled that Mukuro had performed his part in bringing everything she wanted over there.

Luna nodded.

It was time.

* * *

Byakuran expected it.

She expected him to.

He wouldn't dare expect the lengths she'd go to.

Those are secrets that she'd never tell to anyone, no matter their relationship in any world.

Because if they had such a relationship that would make her a very different Luna, making the knowledge useless.

* * *

The Death Chamber was a fitting place for a rematch.

The whispers from the veil are screaming and Byakuran doesn't have the same amount of practice as she does at ignoring them.

She held at best theoretical knowledge with very little practice but that put into use was enough to surprise him. She further capitalized on it with a ruthlessness that had always been there under her placid exterior.

She wants to keep the broken human part out and suffering. He may be unpredictable but he wasn't intentionally violent for all he lashes out; Mukuro aids by giving him an excessive amount of targets. That was all the white devil and the fake angel.

And that was the part of him most hindered by love, twisted as it was.

Right up until she commanded a box weapon to open and spew its contents with magic.

Wrath Flames and Fiendfyre were quite the combination.

She finds and picks up the lost time-turner.

The upon severing the hand with the ring off, Luna apparated out.

* * *

She pretends she couldn't read the 'thank you' on his lips.

* * *

Luna does not fall for any illusionist's tricks so they know the hand is real. Xanxus and Mukuro watch as the combination of dark magical flames and Xanxus' unleashed Flames of Wrath devour London.

"Kufufu... any idea when that will die out?"

"Fiendfyre feeds off of magic and will seek it out until it runs out of magic. It then becomes normal fire after that."

"My Wrath Flames don't do that."

"I opened the boxes with magic, so that's probably the reason." Luna replies because before she took his ring, Luna didn't have one.

"Overkill."

"Justified."

The two males have both been aware of what had happened to her for some time and pause for a moment before they agree.

"Check back next week?"

It's agreed.

* * *

They somehow fail to separate. It isn't due to a curse or any physical means. They just don't want to, until it settles in that Byakuran is truly dead and ashes. The three of them had worked together to kill what amounted to the Boss of the World.

Not entirely unexpected but it inconveniences them.

Especially when all of Byakuran's subordinates are going to be after them and they all want to go different directions.

Xanxus has killed dissenters to Byakuran's regime in practically every country and rebellious force that had ever existed or has plotted a coup against Byakuran; then he even helped to kill the man masquerading as an angel and demon by turns.

Everyone is out to kill him and he knows it. He revels in the knowledge and knows he's equal to the challenge so long as he has time to recover between bouts. Quantity has a quality of its own and Xanxus is still subjected to mortal limits.

Mukuro has been more subversive, in that he has probably led an equal number of men and women to their doom for Byakuran; the man who had rescued him and his fellow test subjects and then kept the other survivors hostage to keep Mukuro's talents his.

People will be out to recruit him or kill him if its not possible. He is still not even in his teens. He cares too much and knows it is his weakness; he tries to hide it behind an utter and complete cynicism on humanity and a hatred of the mafia in particular.

Luna has always held her own private and personal war against Byakuran and his subordinates. Manipulating the Cervello was easy as despite their centuries of learning they weren't human no matter how they acted; they didn't understand what they were doing or why, not really. Breaking Byakuran was hard and for all she hated making use of her gifts for it, and making him fall in love with her was worse. Waiting was nearly impossible.

She was well-known and resented among Byakuran's upper ranks because of his obsession with her. If they didn't want her as a figure head -unlikely as she had killed him- then they wanted her dead.

"The beach." Luna declares.

"Someplace warm."

"Private."

"Mafia Land?" Someone suggests.

"Works for me."

* * *

Mafia Land is deserted except for them. Understandable as any of the mafia that opposed Byakuran is dead or renewing a claim on their territory now that he's dead. It is also keeping all of Byakuran's subordinates, those that willingly served him, busy now that he's no longer drugging others who having recovered their senses are happy to smash his empire to bits with whatever tools they can.

Everything is still functional, although any perishable food is long out of date and swiftly destroyed by Wrath Flames. It gets a raised eyebrow, but no comments.

The non-perishable food stuff can be supplemented locally in a lot of ways anyway.

A lot of supplies are handy here too, including but not limited to everything any a criminal mastermind and their subordinates could want or need. Luna is quite fond of several of them.

Luna enjoys wearing as much or as little as she wants, using sunscreen as she wants; she tans leaving strange and whimsical parts of herself pale as some sort of reverse tattoo. She's getting used to having more than four walls and books all day and relishes that.

Xanxus is the scavenger and hunter; he spends hours fishing for supper, occasionally sleeping and soaking in the sunshine, which makes up for the time he spends roaming the island at night looking for the latest piece of technology to hold his interest; long, roaming patrols to let his energy out.

Mukuro is strangely the motherly one; he is the one that can actually cook and is actually interested in what's going on in the world now that Byakuran is dead. He is also the one to care most about keeping hidden, to the point that the entire island is hidden behind a barrier of Mist Flames while they're on it.

* * *

Mukuro turned on the wireless, listening to the news. The public news anyway, as even a neophyte to the mafia's ways knows that a lot of mafia business doesn't even make the news.

"Turn that off." Xanxus barks.

"Why?" The only person of this little group that has the right to be considered a child still if only by physical age asks.

"The only gossip I'm interested in is things from the Weekly World News - 'Woman's bra bursts, eleven injured.' That kind of thing." He replies sarcastically.

They are now well acquainted with each other's preferred type of sarcasm. They've had time to adapt to each other. They had done that while plotting Byakuran's doom.

"I don't think that I could injure eleven." Luna remarks as she looks down at her bikini clad and much tanner self.

Xanxus cackles like her deadpan humor is the funniest thing ever and even Mukuro doubles over snickering.

* * *

Mafia Land is nice, but not a place they want to permanently stay. Not that they've said anything about it but they make a pretty great team. They killed the Boss of the World after all.

Luna needs a wand to fully make use of her magical talents and materials if she wants to make use of her long hours upon years of research. Both cannot be found here. The Statue of Secrecy is ignored entirely between the three of them; magic isn't as great a secret as it once was.

Xanxus has a serious case of wanderlust when not engaged in a project or sleeping, plus he's as curious as a cat.

Mukuro is also very curious about magical people in general, not to mention has no one to return to -distancing himself from his fellow surviving experiments keeps them safe- so attaches himself to both Luna and Xanxus in a distinctly child-like manner.

This fact is clearly picked up on which makes Luna the mother, and Xanxus the father since Mukuro is clearly the child of their little family.

Sarcasm abounds when a trip to a magical district to get a wand for Luna is mentioned.

"It'll be fun for the whole family." Xanxus says. The destroyer of the Vongola is fond of irony.

"There's no such thing as fun for the whole family." Mukuro retorts.

* * *

This brings up another issue.

"When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money." Luna says. "That's what my mother always said."

"Sentiment." Xanxus snorts.

"We're broke." Mukuro mentions.

Despite thorough searching only spare change has been found in Mafia Land.

Luna is just happy that the clothes are her very own, stolen from unmanned stores yes, but still hers.

* * *

Somehow Mafia Land is closest to Japan, following prescribed routes across the oceans, which is good as Luna has an idea of where its magical district is.

It's bad because while she was reasonably fluent in her understanding of the spoken language she couldn't read a single thing in Japanese. That's something of an issue because there are signs hidden by magic that she'd overlook because she didn't know what they meant.

As they discussed things, they learned that Xanxus was absurdly fluent in more languages than he cared to list and that Mukuro was fluent in the Underworld's most influential languages. Luna was fluent in mainly western languages, living or dead. She had passable Hindi and understood Chinese more fluently than she spoke it but she couldn't read it and especially not Japanese for all that the characters are similar.

"I repeat, there's no such thing as fun for the whole family." Mukuro repeats, this time more humorously as he was proven right to a degree.

* * *

Compared to a number of other places in the world, Japan is fine. It's reestablishing its government after it had been ruled by Byakuran for who knows how long. However Japan is a place of tradition, and Byakuran had not reigned anywhere near long enough for those traditions to have been forgotten.

Luna does not want to know exactly how long she has been a prisoner.

It's not exactly peaceful but there's no open looting or people killing each other for food. Money is still worth something here because people trust in its value.

A bit of pick-pocketing later -apparently Xanxus never lost the touch, and Luna proved surprisingly good at it while Mukuro just robbed a mundane bank- and they're enjoying a meal at a ramen bar when they meet the strange, not quite human fellow.

She and her boys have become quite close as a unit so when she picks up the possible danger, they also tense.

"I believe this is a conversation to be held elsewhere." Luna remarks in English because her Japanese is just horrible.

* * *

The strange not-human man then explains his curiosity about the ring, in English.

Luna is quick to catch onto his lie, the other two only seconds behind.

Then Kawahira, as he introduced himself as, explains about the Tri-ni-Sette. When he hesitates, Luna pushes him further, getting him to part with more information than he's comfortable with.

It isn't a pleasant tale and an even worse system, but at least they're used to that.

Luna frowns as she looks at the ring she wears on a necklace. It rests long and heavy between her breasts.

"Find a system without sacrifices." Luna tells him.

"We won't be it." Xanxus declares.

"Trying to convince us otherwise is futile." Mukuro adds.

Then, because Hope is Luna's Demon of choice she informs him, "Chances are that working together with others instead of lying to them for the Greater Good of the World will eventually find a way. Maybe you'll even make peace with those you've betrayed and all their ghosts haunting you."

"And the Mare Ring?" He asks.

"Who knows? I might just toss it in the sea. It wouldn't be the first suicide stone I've tossed that way."

* * *

"So that trash could see into alternate universes with that ring."

"It explains a lot." Mukuro comments, before he laughs his signature laugh.

"Including how he knew everything he did."

"Including the future, which is built on the past." Luna states.

Both males make noises of interest but actually say nothing.

"He once mentioned that he was born too early and had suborned his greatest detractors into working for him."

Both males make unhappy noises. It's a backhanded compliment at best. Happy that they really are that good and unhappy that Byakuran had their talents willingly at his disposal for a time. That Byakuran used their talents for his goals annoys them because they both dislike him.

Luna smirks. She has a plan, but first a wand.

* * *

The wand is simple enough to get. Both males are unimpressed about what amounts to a magical stick, but they haven't really seen what magic could do yet as they wander back to the mundane areas after a brief shopping trip for the basics.

The magical basics that is, since there are a number of potions and books. All now in her tiny looking purse which does impress both males since it was a small item and previously mundane. She even buys a tent, just because it will be handy.

Ravenclaw that she is, books are a favorite.

Time as a prisoner hasn't changed that.

* * *

Even if the wand and magic made witches and wizards have an incomprehension of logic, it doesn't exactly make them stupid. Not so stupid like the one person who was hawking love-hotels to them.

"Hey man, love is a beautiful multi-tentacled thing. No need to suppress your feelings. Just get a room first, and clean up after yourselves." The sign he was carrying suggested where and the fees for the rooms.

The guy says this to both Luna and Xanxus. Luna's choice in clothing is the reason for it; her yukata is patterned heavily by octopi, and they're eating takoyaki. Xanxus cuts an imposing figure no matter what he's doing -even if he's sleeping- so the assumption is easy to make. Xanxus seems very much like a yakuza and Luna keeps close to him; the assumption about them being together isn't entirely unexpected, but...

Luna stiffens at the implications and Xanxus is intense in the way that says he's weighing the cost of this guy's life against the crime of making a scene.

Mukuro had been staunchly ignored in his entirety by the man soliciting them, as if his existence didn't matter. He then retaliated and the man started screaming about pineapples.

He slapped at Xanxus' patronizing pats to the head as Luna sniggered at them both.

* * *

Magic when used properly was something to cherish out of sheer utility and how comfortable it could make things.

It explained why most magicals were pretty much hedonists; they weren't used to enduring a lot of things people without magic had to because magic was such a utility tool that not using it to do so became masochism.

They would be working their way across the world from Japan, using a combination of all their abilities.

"For a tent, this sure has a lot of room." Mukuro commented once he was inside it. He was a bit busy marveling at the utter defiance of physics and man-made laws.

Xanxus was already investigating the other rooms, poking into everything.

Luna claims one of the rooms as hers and lays out all that she bought. Potion ingredients for a number of common and uncommon potions, a couple of cauldrons. She also unshrinks her suitcase and packs her clothing into the dressers; well some of it. Keeping some in her suitcase is preferable as they occasionally use hotels in the areas that have enough order for a hotel to be used and trusted.

"It has no food." Xanxus remarks as Luna returns from her claimed bedroom.

"So we go shopping."

* * *

Xanxus first trip brings back mostly meat; poultry, beef, pork and fish. He leaves and brings back a few more things like milk, eggs, bread and sandwich things. He then has Luna enchant a backpack for his third trip, where it appears Xanxus has stolen a liquor store's entire stock.

Luna brings back spices, tea, juice, sugar, flour and a number of cooking necessities like oil and butter as well as things like pans and crockery. Both males are stunned stupid because food doesn't matter if you have nothing to cook it in, so they accompany her to gain more of the basics like dish soap, laundry soap, and general hygiene products like towels, toilet paper and cleaners. Silverware is also added because Luna's skill with chopsticks is abysmal.

Mukuro leaves again and brings rice, a diverse selection of fruit and vegetables. Lots of them, and even tofu.

"Going vegetarian?" Xanxus taunts.

"I'm not a vegetarian. Even I was, it wouldn't be because I love animals. I would be a vegetarian because I hate plants."

"Including pineapples?"

"Especially pineapples." Mukuro hisses.

* * *

India is interesting, but is a stop solely because Luna wants a carpet.

"Going to make it fly?" Xanxus asked, dressed like a native for all that he doesn't look like one in the slightest. Neither does he move like one, even if he can speak like one down to the local accent. It is very impressive.

Mukuro's illusions make them look natives nonetheless.

"Oh, yes, so long as Mukuro keeps us hidden and undetected."

Xanxus raises an eyebrow.

* * *

Carpets are comfortable to fly upon. She has no idea why the Ministry banned them.

It's also large enough to have a picnic upon, at least with magic to make it comfortable.

"Better than walking." Luna admits.

"Trains too." Xanxus snorts, in agreement. Luna and Mukuro understand the sentiment; trains are far too crowded.

"Slower than planes." Mukuro comments, just to be contrary because planes can be private.

"Don't have to worry about seasickness." She also adds.

It's enough.

* * *

They are curious about magic and Luna doesn't care about the Statue of Secrecy anymore. She hasn't for a while. She lets them read her books. She had bought the basics and advanced ones for a reason and more than simple comparison of curriculum.

As they get closer to their destination, Luna starts informing them about various things that don't make it into any respectable book, even if the book delves into the Dark Arts or histories of torture as people with magic experimented on various magical species, sentient or not.

Things like homunculi.

They make the connection with the Cervello easily enough.

* * *

It's closer to Egypt than to Greece or even Italy, but they find it.

Luna is magical so the repelling wards have no effect and she knows where it's at so the fact that the island is unplottable is made irrelevant.

Xanxus is proven to be at least somewhat magical since the wards have no effect on him. She doubts that it is recent or from any human lines though.

Mukuro for all his gifts and talents has no magic, but that's because his brilliance lies in understanding and breaking the mind. The wards effects are broken easily.

"What's this?" The youngest asks, because Xanxus expects answers to be given to him eventually or he will find out himself.

"Alexandria's Library." Luna relates to them. "The Cervello kept records of their activities and those of the world here. Any answer you want can be found here."

Xanxus' face frowns imperceptibly but anyone sufficiently sensitive could feel the want for more information than that.

"The Cervello were created and controlled by human hands until they killed all those that did, and those that knew about that too."

Mukuro laughs as he puts things together and Xanxus smirks. Revenge is something they understand well.

"However even if they slaughtered for their perceived freedom doesn't change the fact that their primary purpose hasn't altered in the least."

"They have records of that?" Xanxus asks before he laughs at the sheer ridiculousness of the Cervello having an admittance of their guilt somewhere in there.

"Including their why, somewhere." She confirms.

* * *

Finding the answers is difficult when magic expands dimensions exponentially.

From the outside the remarkable library is a number of small stone towers.

On the inside, information from entire eras would fill any number of palaces.

It is however organized.

* * *

The Cervello are tools made by an Ancient Secret Society that has spawned and spread its grasp into every single secret society since. The Illuminati, the Masons and more.

The Cervello are tools, created and taught through ancient and not-forgotten rituals and spells. They are not born, they are created. They are not taught, they are programmed.

Their directives are inbound.

It all comes down to a clash of their programming and human nature in the end.

* * *

"So the Cervello killed their masters and everyone affiliated with them because they found people to be flawed and lazy?" Xanxus laughs at that. Possibly because he has complained about those same flaws repeatedly in the past and killed people for having them.

"Yes, it seems that they took cues from the mafia in a number of ways." Luna says stretching out kinks and laying all the relevant files down for both males to look over.

"Murder is messy, but accidents and insanity are so much neater." Mukuro remarks, going to the next report with an innate flair.

Luna and Xanxus hum an agreement with that fact. It is very much a true fact.

"The major issue is that the Cervello as we call them are supposed to be unbiased record keepers. Librarians, scribes and secretaries with the occasional judge should two parties have a conflict that they were too invested in to come to a compromise."

Xanxus makes the connection first.

"They had bodyguards, enforcers, protectors."

"They also had handlers, creators and bosses." Luna adds, because otherwise the two mafiosi are prone to forgetting it.

"And they were all so very human." Mukuro adds on.

"Not entirely," Luna chides gently. "There are a number of magical species that have sentience that are in no way part of the human evolutionary line, even if they could breed into it leaving only the slightest of traces, making humanity a genetic cesspool of very human traits from some very not-human ancestors."

This is new and interesting information for both males.

"In fact, none of us are entirely human but we show it in different ways because it is that diluted, even if some of our ancestors have bred for that trait. Xanxus' red eyes, your hair Mukuro and my magic."

She lets that news settle, before she continues.

"People have a number of responses to differences and power. If it is different it is either liked and acquired, or hated and destroyed, occasionally tolerated if it suits them. If it is power then it is worshiped, maybe acquired and occasionally rebelled against."

"That is the truest human trait of all." Mukuro comments, so very cynical on human nature.

"Truth. I might have been more interested in technology as a prisoner, but I did have other interests. Namely, by genetics, if humans hadn't been breeding with non-humans we would all have brown hair and brown eyes."

"Darwin." Xanxus grunts.

"Oh, so very much." Luna giggles. "It's made the world so much more dangerous and interesting, now hasn't it?"

"Where's the proof?" Mukuro asks.

Luna's smile sharpens.

* * *

Luna's proof is a modified lineage potion. In Britain it was a very much a heavily regulated potion; usually used to prove a blood relation of bastard children to their sinning and shameful father. Magical wedding vows were binding to various degrees depending on how faithfully each side kept to the contract. The 'obey' included in traditional wedding ceremonies made it nearly impossible for witches to have an affair. It was unfair, but pre-nuptial contracts would often include penalties on the husband and a loosening of restrictions should it happen and be proven.

In Japan it is one that is considered necessary to anyone's medical file. A number of magical species were known for breeding with humans there and recent non-human heritage could render some potions ineffective; or worse, lethal from a healer's standpoint.

The potions book in Japan has a color index, to determine the type of species from a basic over-view. The Cervello also have one, a heavily expanded one.

She explains that the potion is accurate but it can be misinterpreted, unless a few steps are taken to clarify it. It doesn't make them any less or more human because that's what they identify as and humanity was what they made it. At best, maybe five or ten percent of their heritage isn't but that doesn't mean that it is worth anything or that they have species-specific traits; most people don't even manage two percent and yet can retain inhuman abilities.

Luna's lineage is made plain. Her father was a pureblood wizard, but he takes strongly after his fae ancestors. Luna's mother was a witch but a not entirely human one. Luna has some feathery ancestors according to the color comparisons, possibly a couple of centuries ago. The colors are a mix of blue, sharp silver and a hint of bronze. It's very Ravenclaw of her.

Mukuro's lineage is mostly dark, but it isn't nearly as black like any purely non-magical persons would be. It is a subtle change but the purples indicate that Mukuro is not as human as he thought he was. Knowing what she does of the boy's past and those distracted hetero-chromatic eyes, she knows he's thinking that he only survived those human experiments because he wasn't entirely human. In fact he has some sort of yokai ancestor.

Xanxus' father's colors aren't in the index of the potion book but is in the Cervello's. Not entirely human on either side, but Luna expected that; she didn't expect that Xanxus' great-grandfather was entirely non-human though. His mother also had non-human blood but she had a great deal less of it for all that it was a riot of clashing colors. Somehow, despite all odds, Xanxus is sane. Not by conventional standards maybe, but he can be reasoned with.

"See, humanity's gene pool is contaminated. People like it that way too, or else they wouldn't breed for those traits and abilities."

"So what am I?" Xanxus asks, looking at the solid color on one side and the striated on the other.

"Very much a dragon." Luna replies. "Do you want to go visit your relatives? I know of a Dragon Reserve in Romania..."

* * *

"How does that...?" Mukuro asks. It is obvious that he's asking about cross-breeding.

"Magic." Luna replies.

"But..."

"Just leave it at that." Xanxus orders, as he reads through more books on dragons. It explains a number of his habits, his general temperament and disposition including his fondness for alcohol for all that he doesn't get drunk off it. A number of dragon species have alcohol in their blood through metabolic processes; not having it makes them cranky and less able to breathe fire.

"Still that... magic... Xanxus. How?"

"I am not going to discuss the peculiarities of successfully cross-breeding any non-humanoid species with a magical human." Luna states.

"Wait until you're old enough to get the talk." Xanxus suggests.

* * *

"Still how?" Mukuro repeats some days later, looking as if he lost sleep pondering how that worked.

"Virgin sacrifices." Xanxus snaps out, sarcastically. Mukuro looks as if he might believe it.

Luna resigns herself to explaining how.

Both are utterly horrified. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, especially since it is Xanxus' great-grandfather that's the dragon and not his great-grandmother.

* * *

"You know with the mafia in disarray and Byakuran's forces scattered by the remains of them we could settle somewhere now?" Mukuro leads off.

"So we take some territory over while its weak?" Xanxus says. It obviously appeals to him, greatly.

"Which one though?" Luna asks. "Any preference?"

Xanxus' grin says he does.

* * *

Even Luna, who had grown up the most 'normal' knew that none of them would ever succeed in 'normality.' The mafia life suited them far more than civilian life did, even before their experiences. Luna knew that even a magical upbringing didn't work for her or suit her that well.

She might have burned her way out of Apollo's Underworld but she was very much at home a different 'Underworld' now.

She had eaten its food after all.

At least she has good company.

* * *

A/N: To clarify, I'm not sure what I was thinking while I was writing this; something about how some characters should say some quotes and how to get them to say it. Plus, draconic!Xanxus makes too much sense to ignore. 

I should also point out that a lot of characters are even somewhat OOC due to Byakuran being born  _early_  and thus knowing when, where and  _how_  to recruit even the unruliest people to his side, like Xanxus and Mukuro. It doesn't mean he can keep them there though... especially since he's lacking a number of anchors to sanity like Shoichi and Yuni; plus his oldest 'real' funeral wreathes are like Mukuro's age.


	2. Chapter 2

Luna is the one to ask Xanxus about his aims. The territory they take over will eventually become their home and shelter after all, so they need to have plans and a purpose so they don't get themselves into trouble. A home should be a safe place, as safe as they could make it.

Well, as much as the Underworld is anyone's home. It's dangerous, missteps are fatal and this world abides by strange rules and its inhabitants by even stranger codes of conduct, but that doesn't mean that people can't be happy there.

(They can be. It's hard, it's a struggle but it is far more real for it and oh so worth it. Like friendship.)

The Underworld of the Mafia is a much better Underworld than Apollo's. Here, the moon can shine without reflecting Apollo's mad brilliance.

"The Vongola." Xanxus decides.

The look Mukuro sends Xanxus expresses far more than the mature boy says. All he asks is "Why the Vongola?"

"Why not?" That is the retort that Xanxus uses. It is so incomplete it is practically a taunt.

Playing peacemaker is not something that Luna is used to, but she's learning how and not from Harry Potter's example; Xanxus and Mukuro are not Ron and Hermione. Xanxus articulates about half the things most people would and Mukuro always takes the words left unsaid in the worst possible way, misinterpreting the half he can hear and filling in the blanks with worst-case scenarios.

"I think what Xanxus means is that with the Boss and heirs of the Vongola dead, the family either tore itself apart or joined others they were allied to, from what I understand of mafia politics. So, the actual buildings should be vacant. Any hold and claim on the territory by surviving Family would be weak."

"And if they buildings are destroyed?" Mukuro asks.

"Some of them are." Xanxus informs them; unsaid was that he probably did some of that personally.

"Fixing them with magic is possible. They can even be upgraded, with wards. Passages added, rooms expanded or locked and such. My school had plenty of them hidden behind paintings and blank bricks."

"You know how?" He asks.

He's read her books and more besides -in the Cervello's massive library there is an excess of books and a lack of enforcers of the law- so he knows magic is more than mere words and a flick of a wand. His recent reading binge is runes in various languages; she's seen him make notes, create and figure out problems that would have stumped NEWT students with ease. His latest creations and notes would have flummoxed the professor as well; Luna knows that her own did and Xanxus has casually surpassed her in this area.

"It's possible for me right now to do some of the simpler ones like the painting passage doors but I don't know how to twist space so that going down as single flight of stairs from the seventh floor would reach the second floor on the opposite side of the building."

"That's possible?" He asks, looking thoughtful. "Would be handy for getting around this library."

"Except on Tuesdays. That door didn't exist on Tuesdays."

Both males are clearly baffled by that possibility even if they don't dismiss it out of hand. They've been camping out in a tent in the most massive library in the world hidden from any possible form of civilization around. If nothing else, the defiance of physical dimensions is something they're getting used to. Mukuro once referred to something about a 'tar-diss' but didn't even both to explain the reference once Luna professed her incomprehension.

They have all been lost in the Cervello's library more than once. Xanxus once measured from the door to the far wall in as straight a line as he could manage. It took him three full days on the carpet -seventy four hours and twenty one minutes specifically- flying at full speed to reach it. Mukuro and Luna had joined him on that trip, if a little unwillingly, simply because the tent was on the expanded carpet for the trip.

That same carpet saw them from India to Turkey within six hours. That the inside of the library could be larger than the entire Asian continent in terms of sheer area -Xanxus had done the math- had given both males headaches.

"Magic makes no sense." Mukuro replies, his tone slightly harassed.

Luna pats his head.

* * *

"So if we're taking over the Vongola's territory, we're going to need power, people, resources. Then what are we doing? More mafia madness?" Mukuro asks.

"Eh? Who knows." Xanxus declares, as he takes a deep drink of his wine.

"Well, none of us could live civilian lives I think. Xanxus is wanted in how many countries?"

"At least seventy-two." He informs them dryly. "Back when there were countries. They're probably countries again." He shrugs.

"And both Mukuro and I are known to the Millefiore as well, so while we could join other mafia families it's not something we want to do."

"I do not want to join any filthy mafia family or be part of one. I'd rather kill them all."

"My sentiments exactly. I don't care what my enemies do. I'll just kill them all." Xanxus cuts in.

"Well, we can aim for taking out the worst of those families first. We can loot their resources to build our power base. Find the people that we can turn into our people and so on." Luna suggests. "Once we know who the worst offenders are and so on. Impose our own law on the mafia."

"Some sort of vigilantism, like what the Vongola was founded upon?" Xanxus asks, perking up slightly.

"We're going to be the worst vigilantes ever." Mukuro declares trenchantly.

Xanxus raises his glass in a mockery of a cheer. "To vigilantism."

* * *

They really are going to be the worst vigilantes ever.

Xanxus is a draconic assassin. Dragons are predators, protectors in their own fashion but taking refuge under dragon wings is not an ideal safety.

Mukuro is a lab-rat turned mother-hen. He's a saboteur and spider by nature and the twisted mockery of nurture he has suffered through has only emphasized those traits.

Luna is a failed rebel, ex-prisoner and a very eccentric witch. She has always been a rebel against the norm but prison and torture haven't changed that, like it hasn't changed the fact she's a witch.

It's a recipe for the worst vigilantes to ever happen to the idea of vigilantism. They are utterly abusing the concept and twisting it into something entirely different.

* * *

Vigilantes are those that take down criminals when the law can't or won't; people who do it out of a sense of moral justice. People become vigilantes because they care about law and order.

They very much lack that sort of self-assured righteousness.

It could be said that their motivations are entirely selfish.

Well, at least they're honest about being the worst vigilantes ever.

* * *

The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. Enforce it and impose it.

It could be said that people have always detested evil and sought out a righteous way of living. Their feelings, the accumulation of those people's feelings are what make the law. That's a fact. What doesn't change is this:

People fail the law and the law fails the people.

Those feelings that make the law are neither the provisions in the various governments, nor the system those governments follow. They're the fragile and irreplaceable feelings that everyone carries in their hearts made manifest in the world. Those systems, that force that runs that system and more are all made and carried on through human feelings and ideas passed on from generation to generation.

People protect the law. The law doesn't protect people.

How can an idea and sentiments do anything? They motivate people yes, but that doesn't mean that all people are dedicated to those same ideas and sentiments. If they were, then crime wouldn't exist. If crime didn't exist, these feelings and desire for law and order wouldn't exist either.

People have to do something when ideas and systems and people who are supposed to uphold those laws fail.

That's the core of vigilantism.

* * *

None of them really care about the law at all.

A rebel, an killer and a saboteur.

If anything, they've always been against the system and all the ideas and sentiments that are held within the law. They embody chaos.

Worst vigilantes ever, indeed.

* * *

"Pack up any books and things you need, think you need, might need or just want." Xanxus declares.

"Why?" Luna asks.

"Because we're almost out of food." Mukuro answers. "We've got a week of food left and that's if the both of you don't mind short rations."

"That's a good reason to pack up, but if you're that concerned we could always find the Cervello's kitchen."

Despite having informed both males about what the Cervello were, how they came to be and what they were actually called, it has become habit to refer to them as 'Cervello.' It is what the other two were used to.

"They have a kitchen?"

"They ate?"

"Homunculi are practically human so they can derive energy from nourishment."

Both notice the evasiveness of the answer.

"Do we want to know what else they eat?" Mukuro asks.

"It's probably something like Flames right?" Xanxus questions.

Luna nods at Xanxus' question and informs them both to not ask how.

They trust her in that they do likely do not want to know. Homunculi are considered part of the Dark Arts for a reason.

* * *

Because the Cervello and all those attached to the Cervello's organization are dead the decision is made to take everything of potential edible value out of the kitchen.

Due to the wonders of magic, everything is fresh even though it could be centuries old.

"This wine is from 1429. Holy fuck." Xanxus sounds almost worshipful.

"Luna, I believe I require another of those magic bags of yours. I don't want to have to store everything in one bag. It would make a terrible disorganized mess."

* * *

The Cervello's tower raided of anything they would possibly ever want and need, they spend one last night on the hidden island.

"For something that old, the wine doesn't taste that special." Mukuro comments.

Xanxus shrugs the comment off and tops Mukuro's glass yet again; he is clearly in an incredibly good mood to ignore such a terrible slur against alcohol.

Luna giggles.

"Lightweight." The man with gleaming red eyes announces cheerfully.

* * *

A short ride on the carpet is not long enough for Mukuro recover from his hangover; thankfully Mukuro can hold the illusion of not being there even while hungover. Luna unlike both males had only imbibed three glasses and had sobered up before going to bed.

Between them, both males had finished off that bottle of wine and three more. Xanxus is unaffected aside from being very mellow this morning; he even made breakfast for both of them, as much as several sandwiches can be called breakfast.

They quickly arrive at what was once the Vongola estate. It's more than a little overgrown and weather damaged, but it's still standing; holes in the roof or not. Well, where's there's a roof anyway.

"What happened to roof on that wing?" Luna asks aloud.

"It's in the East Garden." Xanxus explains.

"Why?"

"I tossed it there. CEDEF was taking control of the famiglia after I assassinated the Ninth; that was a tricky assignment too. I ended up fighting the head of CEDEF and we had pretty much demolished another wing by knocking each other through it. So I picked up the roof, tossed it at him and we fought some more out on the grounds. I ended up killing him after burning through half his torso. End of story."

That Xanxus had moved the fight to the grounds suggested he'd liked the house enough not to want to finish demolishing it, which was sort-of sweet really. As much as dragons could be sweet. She wondered if Xanxus had been loyal to Byakuran at the time or if he had just been biding his time when he had destroyed the Vongola. Turning a place like the Vongola Estate into a lair was very much a dragon thing to do.

"So we need wards to divert attention first and then I can start cleaning up on this mess. You can plan out how to be vigilantes with Mukuro."

* * *

Three weeks later, the Vongola Headquarters doesn't look like it has been destroyed and left to rot for years. Xanxus hadn't been kidding about that wing he and the CEDEF's head had destroyed by what looks like bodily knocking each other through multiple rooms and floors at a time; the holes in the few remaining walls had reminded Mukuro of those cartoons with the rabbit, the duck, the wolf-thing and the high-speed bird that he had tried to explain to Luna. He failed at it because while she knew what screens and a telly were for, she had never watched cartoons and didn't see the need to now. The roof of that wing had miraculously survived but that many holes in the building had let in the elements and animals.

The rest of the estate is not exactly pristine either. The less said about the landscaping the better and Luna is pretty sure that reattaching the roof like that was not entirely correct or a job she's done exactly right. 'Reparo' is a general fix-it spell; it is not a construction spell, not by a long shot. They could always find people to fix it properly later, but it works and she hasn't detected any leaks yet.

Luna has also charmed a lot of the interior of the base that they had claimed. The plumbing is magical now and all the windows are charmed unbreakable from the outside; that was a group decision because escape is better than being fenced in.

It was a lot of work but she's proud of it, especially if the roof still doesn't leak in the future.

* * *

Mukuro and Xanxus haven't been idle either. They'd disappear with the carpet for a few hours and bring back people and information to their new home.

A lot of the people brought over are clearly going to be support types and are terrified of both males. Luna doesn't quite understand why.

(She has Byakuran haunting her dreams sometimes. He's thankful. She wakes up in a cold sweat. The faux angel is far more terrifying than Xanxus and Mukuro.)

Mukuro's fellow lab-rats are also brought home one day, along with a few others that he's picked up; most of Mukuro's picks are interesting. One is a curiously fierce looking fellow with a massive ball-and-chain weapon. Luna is insulted to her face by the animalistic blond but a few flicks of her hand and a touch of magic sends the blond somewhere deep into the wilds of the gardens.

She assigns them to manage the landscaping, since they weren't doing anything else but take up space. The blond, Ken and the boy with glasses named Chikusa start joining Mukuro in his ventures out of the estate. Their tall minder tackles the landscaping like a man enlightened. He doesn't do too badly for an utter amateur.

She really should see if Neville was actually alive and maybe introduce them. Having magical plants on hand would be handy, but Neville and plants could wait for a little bit more.

* * *

The information about the world is more interesting.

Xanxus is still wanted dead by just about everyone. He remains among the top ten most wanted in over 80 countries. Then there are the countless groups and organizations that want to kill or capture him for prestige or just to torture him. It's rather impressive in the vast quantity and array of enemies he has managed to acquire. Daddy always said you could judge a man by his enemies. Luna wonders if hoarding enemies counts to dragons, because good enemies hoard themselves and Xanxus has easily reached the point where his enemies are self-perpetuating.

News about the Millefiore Empire isn't that interesting. Some of the higher-ups have managed to keep parts of the Empire stable. Byakuran never lacked for zealots. Some of them are even competent. Others are ambitious and have positions high enough to potentially cause a lot of trouble with the resources at their disposal; they're made note of and raids are planned.

As for the mafia side of things, the Millefiore famiglia has fallen apart. The Giglio Nero were among the first to separate from that sinking ship. The Cavallone, who absorbed the Vongola remnants, are reasserting themselves after some years of unwanted but necessary servitude to the fake angel, so they should expect some movement from that quarter. Especially since the Cavallone were once allies of the Vongola.

The triads are scrambling and fighting with other groups in Asia. The Russians are focusing inwards and preparing for war. More and more information filters in through Mukuro and Xanxus.

Of course some information filters out too.

* * *

Whispers speak of Vongola's rebirth.

Luna decides to not play housekeeper anymore.

They've recently been noticed by a lot of enemies after all.

They were always against the world, and they beat Apollo who had ruled the world with his brilliance.

Now the masses are testing their tempering.

* * *

"How are we?" Luna asks.

"Running thin. We've got limited supplies and resources. Soon we will be running on idealism." Mukuro hisses. "Thankfully they don't know we're here yet."

"We've got some time before starvation and deprivation sets in." Xanxus replies. "We've been looting those that we've been targeting. Those magic bags of yours are useful."

"So we still need more people, resources and weapons right?" Luna asked. "We're going to pick up a lot of enemies testing us soon."

"It's not like we have a ring maker or the spare cash to buy up whatever box weapons are floating around." Mukuro points out. "Plus unsuitable box weapons are just a waste."

"Finding the people with enough flames and a will to fight is going to be an ongoing issue, especially if we want loyalty. As for box weapons... If we had the equipment I could make lower grade rings and some box weapons. The box animals are more complicated." Xanxus offers, but doesn't explain further.

"To do that full time though is unwise though." Mukuro remarks.

"Especially since Xanxus is a magnet." Luna comments. "He draws people with his animal magnetism."

Xanxus snorts and takes another long deep drink of his wine. They do understand what she means; Xanxus either brings people together or drives them apart and into pieces. Despite how terrified by him some of their men are, they willingly follow him and lay their lives on the line they've drawn with their bravado. It's very impressive, almost as much as his array of enemies.

"So we need equipment for the rings and boxes. The Mare Ring is nice, but it's not really my type. I also need to get my own box animal." Luna remarks. "Magic is nice, but magicals have their own version of omerta, so using it obviously... at best there is memory alterations for those who have witnessed it and fines but at worst... The Vindice just sedate people and leave them to pickle in tanks. It's a much nicer deal in Vendicare than Azkaban. Azkaban has Dementors; their mere presence brings up bad memories. Dementors will feed and breed on misery and will eat your soul should they get the chance."

She doesn't really care for the Statue of Secrecy but she cares that others do care about it; she does not want to be around a Dementor. She would be, if convicted of breaking the Statute, because she was British and Britain's premier and only prison is Azkaban.

"So we outfit you in flame tech. We just need the equipment."

"So, we're going to raid what now?" Mukuro asks.

"I was thinking that Millefiore base near Germany. It's a research base." Luna suggests. "It should have the equipment and tools."

"Sounds good. We'll go raid and pillage the base." Xanxus decided.

"You're making it sound like we're pirates or something instead of vigilantes." Mukuro accused.

"Yo ho, me hearties." Xanxus said with a straight face.

Mukuro laughed, and Luna joined him in it. Xanxus just looked pleased at his joke. Silly dragon-man.

"Worst vigilantes ever." Luna agreed. Calling them pirates is actually much more accurate, but the carpet isn't a ship.

* * *

Stripping the base of all the equipment was actually a bit more of a hassle than it should have been.

Some of the equipment was delicate and Xanxus complained about their handling of it -or inability to- until both Luna and Mukuro decided to do something more productive like hack the computer systems for anything interesting. Xanxus had decided to capture the base's scared and surviving staff and put them to work that he was overseeing.

"How did you learn how to hack?" Mukuro asks.

"I read a lot." Luna explains.

"While captive."

"I like learning and Apollo was ever so generous at times." She shudders, now that she's free to do so.

"Kufufufufu, so manipulative our little moon."

"Of course, the moon is manipulative. It drives men to madness. It's called lunacy for a reason." She explains.

"And even Apollo isn't immune to the moon." Mukuro says with scorn.

"He got too close to the sun." She corrects as she delves into the base's system.

* * *

The moon reflects the sun's light and its brilliance.

This softer reflection reveals details rendered flat in harsh light.

The devil lies in the details; they're open to bias and interpretation.

Lunacy is a compelling force for that reason alone.

* * *

"The sun just burns and burns until nothing is left. The moon invites madness and makes it alluring."

"Yes, the allure of madness is more than mere desire." Murkuro corrects with a far more  _knowing_  tone than a child should ever have. "It's like gravity."

"And the moon's gravity influences the sea."

(Mukuro seems to have missed her pun; or maybe it makes less sense in English than it would in Italian.)

* * *

It isn't that the lies are too beautiful to resist. It's that the truth is too hideous to face.

And just because the moon reflects the sun's light doesn't mean that it can't focus that light either.

Focused brilliance burns.

Any child with a magnifying glass and a sunny day would tell you that.

It just takes a bit longer with the moonshine.

* * *

"Xanxus, Mukuro." Luna calls out. "This base has backdoor access to a number of interesting places."

Both males take a break and Mukuro wanders up, looks at the screen and begins laughing; then he starts explaining what he sees to Xanxus as he tries not to double over again.

Xanxus proves that despite being very cat like in some ways he's not that curious; he's not distracted from his work. A dragon has a bit more sense than curiosity but many things are similar between a cat and a dragon; it's a predator's nature.

A cat is an example of sophistication minus civilization and is the only animal which accepts the comforts but rejects the bondage of domesticity. Plus, some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel.

She finds that all of that is true, and that they have many other fine qualities as well. Luna has come to appreciate them in both males.

Now it seems that she's really started contributing to the vigilante cause beyond housework; she just robbed three of the bases that are maintaining parts of Apollo's empire with a few taps of the keys.

She's always been good at theory, and the practical wasn't that hard.

* * *

(She's had plenty of time to figure out details and play against herself being someone else; the devil's empire was built on details. Sand is remarkably abrasive against fine details; the moon was eroding the Empire before Apollo was even aware of it.

Compulsions are an easy magic. Emotions and actions can be influenced. A cheering charm is one thing but it is a different matter to use compulsions intelligently.

That takes a wide range of knowledge and the ability to apply it properly.

She has no regrets about it. Any of it.)

* * *

He still thanks her in his dreams.

* * *

Settling in the score of newly 'rescued' human resources was pretty easy.

Mukuro knocked them all out, erasing the memory of them removing the equipment and the fact they had loaded the magic carpet up with expensive equipment.

Xanxus spent the first ten minutes of the trip back worrying over his newly acquired hoard of equipment and the rest of the journey drafting plans of what he can now do with it on the table.

"So if you're the moon, and Byakuran is Apollo, who are we?" Mukuro asks at the other end of the table; he's drinking tea and lazily gesturing with the cup.

"You're Mercury. Hermes might be the god of thieves, crossroads and more but you're not just a mere messenger. Communication, perception, reasoning, logic and wit are all part of Mercury, as is curiosity and energy."

"And Xanxus?" The Mist asks. Xanxus peaks up from the notebook he was working in.

"He's Venus."

"Explain." Xanxus demands, cutting off Mukuro's laugh.

"Venus has a bad reputation because it is the Roman name of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love, but the planet and the goddess are very different entities." Luna begins. "To start, Aphrodite is an idea turned myth. She is the Goddess of Love but more forgotten is that she is the Goddess of Hatred and other passions too. Because to not love something is merely apathy, but to hate takes passion and obsession; both of which are types of love turned to different and often violent ends. Venus is very much a real planet, and has significance in astrology and that is what I'm referring to."

Xanxus snorts; both accepting the explanation and telling her to get on with the rest of it.

"It's the hottest planet in the solar system and associated with iron and fire, like Mercury is with water. Venus is a planet everyone associates with romantic feminine love due to the name and a few snippets of myths that everyone knows; people really should read more. There is more to passion than just simple eros, or our notion of romantic styled love. There's Ludus; that's conquest. Storge is love grown from friendship. Pragma doesn't involve the heart at all. Mania is obsessive and Agape is spiritual and selfless. It's all love, yes, but a person doesn't have to love another person romantically for it be love. They can love good food, wine, art and literature. It's why Venus is associated with a sense of aesthetics and taste too. It can lead to a type of hedonism at times, but hedonism is a love of pleasure."

She pauses for a moment, reading the mood before continuing.

"Xanxus is such a sensualist, luxuriating in what the world can offer in food, drink, comforts, creations and even the sensations to be found in battle. He enjoys it all, as a predator assured of his place at the top of the food chain does, fights to keep his position there and enjoys the process; the pleasure and pain and triumph of it all."

Xanxus blinks looking a little stupefied and a lot more enlightened, looks at the design he had been working on before snarling. "Thought I'd be Mars."

"You enjoy more than war, Xanxus." Luna states. "You revel in living and its sensations, even outside the midst of battle and conflict." She smiles. "Sometimes, Xanxus, you can't see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others."

"Whatever." Xanxus replies, returning to his plans and designs.

Luna and Mukuro tactfully ignore what might be a blush and how Xanxus is just tapping the pencil to the paper instead of making proper marks.

* * *

Settling in the scientists, the researchers and the equipment takes a little time but is done within the day.

"Exactly what are we going to do now?" Mukuro asks. "We've semi-solved our weapon issues for when our forces do fight without Xanxus and I, but there are other issues that we need to see to. We can't just continue to steal everything."

"It's unfeasible in the long run. Vigilantes can't be vigilantes if they're starving." Xanxus points out.

"Or if they're dead from bad intelligence." Mukuro corrects.

All of them know this, and they know what this leads to but they don't wish to state it.

'We're going to have to make alliances eventually.' Luna writes out in looping cursive and holds up for both men to read.

"And allying with mafia makes us no better than mafia." Mukuro states.

"And who said we had to ally with mafia?" Xanxus asks. Unsaid is that of those that weren't mafia, all of those probably want to kill him, but it's his choice; the mafia at least don't hold that many grudges over things like attempted or actual murder and there are plenty of deals made through bloodshed. "There's probably a number of allies out there. We just have to look."

"I would like to search for Neville."

"Who's Neville?" They both ask.

"A fellow rebel. Very good with plants of all kinds, including the magical kind. The landscaping needs work."

They both pick up that she means more than what's apparent in what she's saying, but they don't ask. They trust her and it's wonderful; friendship with these two is amazing, like standing on a cliff's edge and knowing that someone will catch her from her freefall before she breaks on the ground. This friendship is different from those she had with the D. A. and others; she had always felt the outsider and unwanted unless they had a particular need for her. This friendship actually includes her and listens to what she says and what she means as well; she and her opinions are cherished.

"You still need a box weapon too. Any in particular?" Xanxus demands her opinion. Having known Xanxus for a while now, she knows when he's in the mood to create something.

"A thestral is nice, but they're not anywhere around here. A nundu would kill us all by breathing."

"I'm assuming these species are endangered?" Mukuro asks.

"Like the unicorn or dragons."

"Go find your plant person." Xanxus commands, in the grips of an idea so brilliant it edges on madness; or it might be Xanxus' sense of ironic humor coming to light. "And bring back a thestral if you want one as your box animal too."

* * *

Box animals are weapons designed to mimic the animals of nature and their natural abilities.

Simple ones operate very much like a computer program. They have innate commands ingrained in them. Weapons are designed as such.

More complex ones have actual animalistic behavior. From chasing squirrels to meowing and rolling over to show submission. Weapons are not designed to have those.

That sort of behavior is well beyond simple construction and programming. Those box weapons learn and adapt.

Those require an actual animal as their base.

* * *

Finding Neville is actually pretty easy. Not because of any magical spell, or personal knowledge. It's all animal instinct.

First she goes to the butcher shop, orders a few steaks and pays for them. Then she apparates out of Italy, up the European continent and then across the channel. Then it's up towards Scotland and Hogwarts.

Seeing Hogsmeade hurts. Seeing Hogwarts hurts.

It's an old hurt and familiar; able to be ignored. So Luna ignores it and ventures into the Forbidden Forest in search of the thestral herd.

* * *

The herds of Hogwarts are domesticated and a few years without human interaction hasn't quite made them all wild yet. They're half-wild and skittish but excellent steak is a very good bribe.

They seemed to have picked up a few guard dogs in the form of Fluffy's half-wolf puppies who have changed from guard dogs to herding and hunting dogs; she's not entirely sure how they've grown without Hagrid overseeing them. They're still friendly enough and they remember Luna.

Hopefully, Mukuro and Xanxus won't complain about her new pets. Leaving them all here would be negligence of the highest order; dogs need people to keep them in line. If you tame something you are responsible for it.

She's going to have to come back for them. For now however, she just has to find the thestral that took Neville to the ministry.

* * *

Arriving on Neville's treestep is an unique experience from the start.

Neville and his plants have seemingly taken over a Scottish valley and created a fantastical village well beyond the picturesque splendor of Hogsmeade. The buildings are not just merely magical, but living greenery; flowers, vines and more. That some of the species are magical and moving is only a little more impressive.

She's a little in awe of it. It's the subtleties that get her; Neville has altered plants and the valley's climate alike to create his new home. It's a sanctuary and fortress and home all in one.

Her ride is seen by lots of little children -under Hogwarts age, but not toddling little sprogs- which is saddening in its own way. She recognizes some features in a few of them from those she once knew in Hogwarts.

"Are you here to meet the elders?" One of them asks.

"If one of them is Neville Longbottom."

"Master Neville!" They gasp and lead her towards his treestep.

* * *

Neville has grown again, but is so very happy to see her that he hugs her and bursts into tears. She has a similar reaction.

She catalogs how Neville has changed. His hair is darker, longer and his head is crowned with a wreath of fading flowers and a crown of holly. There is a vein like scar on one side of his face; he's been lightning-struck at least once. It explains why that eye looks a little off; not as much as Mister Moody's glass replacement but still off.

He's tall, broad and tan. His gait is a little awkward and sounds it too; most noticeable is the left arm as it has a plant curled around it and the plant articulates his arm and fingers for him. Despite this, he's still very much Neville in his shyness and quiet certainty of purpose.

Becoming a druid has suited Neville well, although she's not certain he knows he's become one.

* * *

It can never be fully explained, but there's something undeniably raw about loving someone who's been wounded before. You know that this person isn't just a survivor, but they must have licked themselves clean and gotten back up after life decided to give them a beating, hexing, cursing or two.

Luna and Neville have always loved each other once they found each other, but not romantically; never as such. They were both the outcasts of their house in Hogwarts and overshadowed by their friends; they shared an understanding of the cruelties of being different from the norm and standing fast by their beliefs.

There's also something undeniably brave about someone who doesn't hide their scars, but instead, displays them with triumph and audacity. Once this is recognized, the shamelessness alone could keep any bystander either fearful or madly in love.

Luna has never been afraid of being different or outlandish with her appearance. She misses her radish earrings, but the feather ones that find their way to her room are appreciated as much as the flowery hair-clips. She has always held herself with pride, and now she wears gratitude as well. She likes wearing gratitude far more than she likes hearing it.

There's something undeniably sacred about holding someone who's been wounded before. Because they'll do their best not to bleed on you, and a part of you knows they don't even need to be held.

Neville has taken after her in this aspect; he wears his scars with a subtle pride and confidence that's innate in knowing he has survived the horrors the world has thrown at him. He has also bloomed without her knowing when; the flower petal that fell off of his brow and into his tea proclaim the children's gratitude for their haven.

The undeniable thing is that loving a survivor is that in fact, it's almost as if you need it more than they do.

Despite the years and the horrors within them, Neville and Luna still understand each other in this way. Something within them both -a hidden tension and worry- eases with that hug.

(Mukuro and Xanxus are the same; now she just needs to get them to wear gratitude as well...)

* * *

"Ginny is dead." He begins.

"I know. She gave me a gift of courage. You're quite nice, but we've never really given each other gifts other than understanding and sympathy before."

They have a moment of silence for their departed friend.

* * *

Neville outlines the years from his perspective and how he and all the children their group protected survived. It's a tale that takes hours, and his future plans can be summed up in minutes or a single sentence of 'we will live.'

Luna's tale of the years is considerably shorter and Neville's eyes darken at how much isn't said but is nonetheless heard. Her future plans take longer because she has to explain about the mafia, Mukuro and Xanxus; the fact that they're the worst vigilantes ever is included. It means her future plans are 'we will protect and this is how.'

Neville weighs the scales in his mind.

He's always been a Gryffindor at heart but he has a Hufflepuff's loyalty.

* * *

"What do you need me for?" Neville asks.

"The landscaping. It's utterly terrible." Luna informs him.

Neville, unlike Mukuro and Xanxus understands exactly what she means.

"Well, what sort of herbologist and friend would I be if I let my friend's garden continue to flounder like that?"

* * *

They leave Morag in charge; Morag had been a Ravenclaw yes, but one that was disinterested in anything but learning and while they weren't friends they hadn't been enemies either. Morag would let her into the tower should Luna manage to catch her; her tormentors often prevented that by happenstance.

Luna often didn't manage to get into the tower when they did that; instead Luna slept in abandoned classrooms when she was locked out. She learned to sleep in broom closets when she was locked in them over the weekend without her wand; there was a reason she knew all the prefects' and teacher's patrol routes and times by heart and who had been on rotation and when. The right teacher or prefect would save her; the wrong one would send her to the infirmary or detention.

(She probably owed Percy Weasley her life a few times over. Retrospectively, she might have caused him to lose faith in Dumbledore who failed to do anything except maintain a shaky and degrading status quo; the Ministry at least tried or looked like it was doing something. Luna had never had faith in Dumbledore, instead she had it in what he represented and those that believed in that goodness too: friendship, equality, love, happiness...)

Morag is obviously more interested and wary of the world now.

Then they go and pick up the herd of thestrals and Fluffy's half wolf children. It's a few moments of planning and wand-work to arrange a way to transport the pack and get the rest of the herd to follow those that she and Neville will be riding.

She wonders what the hellhounds and her dragon will make of each other.

* * *

She worried unnecessarily; Xanxus and Fluffy's grown pups get along fine.

Xanxus has the pack obeying him within minutes. The herd of thestrals fell in line as well. A number of their minions are suitably creeped out by the thestrals' appearances and those that aren't are looking at the twin-headed wolves uncomprehending.

This left Mukuro meeting Neville, and after a brief visual examination of each other Mukuro goes to pet one of the thestrals. Neville explains what they are and asks Mukuro to be patient with him because he knows practically nothing except for the fact that he's needed here, because Luna is his friend and the landscaping is a disaster.

Then she introduces Neville to Lancia and left them to do their job.

The landscaping of the Vongola Estate is a mess in more ways than one.

* * *

"Exactly what are you doing, you lunatic?" Xanxus asks later, while handing her a purple box, marked with a crescent moon and ring. He's eyeing the thestrals and Fluffy's offspring. They're clearly wolves, but they have two heads. He's plotting something, but those gears are turning in the back of his mind and he has plenty of space left at the front for doing other things with.

"Changing the landscaping."

"Not following."

"Magic has many different branches. One of which is potions, which is a very exacting branch and demands precision and understanding. Potions can have many different effects. Some are poisons, some are antidotes and some heal."

"What about love potions? I remember a mention of those."

"Oh, those exist too. It's not actually love mind you, unless you like obsessive, love struck and jealous fools spewing bad poetry. Mild ones are just very potent aphrodisiacs. Moderate ones require a way to focus the target to someone; it requires a part of them like hair or a nail clipping. Those wear off relatively quickly, within the week. The illegal ones however, those can damage the mind and body because they're that potent or they have illegal ingredients."

Xanxus grunts.

"Those however, I don't like. Other potions however are practically invaluable. There are truth serums, healing potions and a wide range of others for just about every problem magical and mundane. Dittany and murtlap for wounds. Blood replenishers, dreamless sleep potions, calming droughts and more."

"And we need plants for these?"

"Yes, and science too." She adds.

"Identifying the ingredients on a chemical level and replicating through chemistry." He elaborates, once he gets what she means.

"Why, yes."

"Changing the landscape indeed, you lunatic." Xanxus remarks fondly.

* * *

Scape is a funny word. It's a derivative of 'scope.' Scope meaning 'within your sight.'

So a cityscape is a a view of the city. A landscape is a view of the land.

By pure definition anyway; context is trickier.

* * *

Land is also a funny concept.

There is the physical property; a measurable mass and area of the earth's surface.

There is also the territory aspect; who does this belong to?

Included in the territory is 'how' and 'why.'

Territory doesn't have to be physical. It can be mental. It can be illusionary. It can be political.

* * *

Changing a landscape can be as easy as planting a few flowers and waiting for them to bloom.

Flowers can bloom even in hell, she believes.

She wonders how the flowers in the Underworld will do now that Apollo's brilliance is gone.

* * *

Mukuro, Xanxus and Luna might be the worst vigilantes ever, but they're definitely not mafia even if it looks like it at times.

They've somehow volunteered themselves to be the ethics committee, the clean-up coordinators and provider of unusual services in that order.

Worst vigilantes ever indeed.

(Where is the justice?)

* * *

They know that their peace wouldn't have lasted. The mafia doesn't know that they're not mafia; not really.

Mukuro hates the mafia. His family experimented on themselves when they were scorned and killed themselves for prestige. Then as the Millefiore took over, the other famiglias started paying the Estraneo and providing even more subjects for them.

Mukuro has never forgiven or forgotten about that fact. Lancia and his famiglia took them in after Mukuro slaughtered and destroyed the Estraneo and then Lancia learned what his famiglia did to and intended for the half-mad children he had taken in and loved; money and supplies sent to the Estraneo to create more child-weapons. Lancia killed them, but he's still haunted because those were his brothers and comrades even if they became monsters to fight devils.

(Lancia remains human and suffers for it.)

Luna is ambivalent about the mafia. She found Neville's haven a wonder but she knows that she'd never be able to call it home. She can't live a normal civilian life either, as that had never been possible for her after her mother's murder because she doesn't fit such a lifestyle. So it is the underworld for her; the issue is that she enjoys being herself. The moon has its own rhythm and pace and trying to command it is madness worse than any lunacy.

Luna knows that she can only shine in the underworld, but she hasn't forgotten the horrors Apollo's has visited upon her or what it could in the future. Every step forward in the underworld is a struggle but every breath is a sweet victory, especially now that she's free to breath the night's air.

Xanxus is, in many ways, the ideal of the mafia. He's charismatic, powerful, intelligent and so very, very dangerous. He's utterly lethal and completely unashamed of it or himself. He's too striking to live outside of the shadows and too domineering to not carve out his own place within them. He's the terrifying Boss people are happy to bow to, and cater to as well; Xanxus doesn't abuse this as much as he could because he's terrifyingly pragmatic in an utterly inhuman way at times.

Xanxus might be the ideal of the mafia, but he's a dragon at heart; dragons hoard what they wish. Power, deceptions, secrets, knowledge and maybe even the moon and other planets as well.

* * *

Luna's wards around the Vongola property were weak; they were meant as camping wards which meant they were meant to cover less than ten yards of space. That was plenty of area for a witch or wizard; magical tents were still tent sized on the outside. Setting up a small series of them around the Vongola Estate's boundary line took about an hour. It was like building a wall with random rocks when it was meant to be poured cement and bricks. They would fall eventually.

Later, Xanxus and Mukuro had set up some sort of barrier that imitated what she knew the Hogwarts wards did to those without magic. It would divert people away and show them unattractive ruins of a building. Those that were past that barrier would see it as it was; it was just hard to approach unless you were keyed in and that was as easy as gathering hair. Simple compulsions are as easy as cheering charms.

Still, while the Vongola Estate looked ruined to those that haven't entered it people were learning that the Vongola was reviving and renewing itself. They were searching and not everyone was good at hiding all their tracks.

Which explained why some of the Vongola's old members and allies came past for a visit and noticed signs that said there was more life at the estate than there appeared to be.

* * *

They at least had the decency to call ahead.

Well, to send a messenger.

The message was from the Cavallone and asking for a meeting in a week's time. They all made a note of it, decide to hold a meeting later and move on with what they're doing.

* * *

"So the Cavallone are a mafia famiglia." Neville begins. "I know nothing about them, but that's not anything new."

"Ugh, filthy mafia." Their illusionist groans.

"Shut up. I'm trying to remember about them." Xanxus snaps back.

"So they weren't that important?" Neville asks.

"Pre-Byakuran, the Cavallone were a large famiglia with nearly 5,000 members. They worked mostly politically and traded favors, but that wasn't always profitable so they had issues money wise and the heir really didn't want to take over as Boss; he only did so because circumstances forced him to. The problem is that almost everyone owed the Cavallone, which is one of the reasons they held out so successfully against Byakuran's takeover when the heir did take up the reins. I don't remember his name." Lancia informed them. Lancia was the only one of them that was raised traditionally mafia, even if he was from Northern Italy.

"They joined the Millefiore eventually right? His name is Dino, I think. I remember seeing pony-boy there." Xanxus states. "I don't think I killed any of them, so we shouldn't have issues on that front."

"They joined the Millefiore when they realized there was no way for the famiglia to survive otherwise and none of them liked it, I suppose." Lancia continued. "Rumor has it that they've managed to recover a lot of lost ground and gain even more."

"Does anyone want me to hack their records?" Luna offers.

"Yes. We can discuss this properly once we have actual data to discuss." Xanxus declares.

The meeting breaks up because they have something else to do.

* * *

"How do we not have an actual phone line?" Mukuro asks after those with other time-sensitive tasks left.

"I think that was my fault." Luna admits. "Internet doesn't require phone lines all over nowadays, so there's access all over the estate except for the catacombs. Of course a lot of the networks with sensitive information aren't even capable of hooking up to the internet. No need to invite in hackers."

"What's the internet?" Neville asks.

"You're explaining this." Mukuro tells her. "After explaining how vehicles work and showing him how to drive a motorcycle, I am not willing to explain it."

"But not a car?" Luna asks.

"Mukuro said to ask Lancia to teach me how to drive a car should I want to learn." Neville informs her.

"Is this because Mukuro is too short to reach the pedals?" She queries.

"Don't change the subject." Mukuro snaps, before stalking off in a huff.

Neville and Luna smile at each other.

* * *

"Tickling dragons isn't something you should do." Neville had scolded her back in Scotland.

Luna beamed at him, anyway and giggled.

* * *

The thing about actual landscaping with gardens and the like is that soil is important.

There's the type of soil: clay, rock, sandy and more.

Then there's the soil's characteristics. The amount of nutrients, water, how compact it is, and how acidic or basic it is.

These factors determine what sort of plants grow best.

And if the soil isn't suited, there are ways to change it.

* * *

Generally it involves a lot of shit and hard work.

* * *

Neville is a brilliant herbologist and always has been.

He recognizes that the 'landscape' Luna referred to was more than just changing the business they were doing and cleaning up the grounds. People had to play part in respecting, maintaining and using the landscape properly.

In the normal circumstances that would mean lots of work in the sun by lots of hands dealing with dirt and dung.

In abnormal definitions of landscape, people were also part of the landscape; Mukuro is surprisingly hardy yet so delicate considering what she knows of his life.

Anyone with the slightest knowledge of plants would know that plants only grow carnivorous if the soil is so exceptionally poor that they cannot draw nutrients from the ground.

Mukuro is no exception.

It's a good thing in the underworld they live in, to be the predator. The problem was repairing the damage done and ensuring he didn't grow up completely twisted.

However moonlight is not sunlight, and Luna is no prodigious herbologist. Thankfully she knows one.

He's just a bit clueless about everything else.

"So how does the internet work?"

* * *

One conversation later that has her determined to set the Vongola's mirrors up like those that Harry and Sirius once had, Luna is dragged out to the yard by Xanxus. Neville follows because he's a brave friend and he isn't worried about the white lion stalking Xanxus' heels so much as the dragon-man himself.

Neville's a Gryffindor; he is a lion when he's not a badger. Dragons are a different story.

"Try out your box weapon." The man with crimson eyes commands.

Luna pulls the box out, lights her new ring with her Cloud Flames and opens the box.

"Romania proved interesting, didn't it?" She asked the assassin.

"Shaddup and name your dragon."

* * *

"Is it a girl dragon or a boy dragon?" Luna asked.

"Luna, it's a dragon. Does it really matter?" Neville asked, a faint edge of hysteria to his voice.

"Why, yes it does. If it's a girl dragon, then it shall be Hermione. If it's a boy dragon, I'm not sure what to name it. Any suggestions?"

"Holy Mother of God!" Is heard in the distance, as are claims of 'that's a damn dragon!' and 'who the hell has that?!'

"Can Mary be a boy's name?" Luna asks. Xanxus' dark chuckles do not count as disagreement.

* * *

After bonding with Hermione the dragon and putting her back in the box, Xanxus hands over another purple box marked with a crescent moon.

The thestral is less of a surprise and is obviously a mare.

"I name thee, Hope." The thestral named Hope nuzzles her master.

"This is something I can deal with better." Neville announces.

"She's named the rest of the thestral herd after vices and virtues." Xanxus informs the wizard, without an ounce of subtlety to him. "There's Ira, Superbia, Acedia, Luxuria, Avaritia, Invidia and Gula to start younger thestrals are named Castitas, Temperantia, Liberalitas, Industria, Patientia, Humanitas, and Humilitas. Now there's Hope."

"Ah." Neville replies in understanding.

"Does Neville want a box animal too?" Luna asks while hugging Hope.

"I'll have to learn how to use flames first." Neville points out.

"A bear." Luna decides.

"Any idea about his flame type? Or what weapons the two of you can actually use in combat, Lunatic?"

"I think Nev's a Sun and a good English longbow or quarterstaff would work. He's used a sword before, but there's a difference and using and knowing how to use it properly in combat especially against other people. I still don't know about a weapon for me personally, but I know I need one."

"Just think about it, otherwise you're going to be stuck with just hand to hand and yours needs work." Xanxus commands, before tipping the other man onto his shoulder and kidnapping him. Luna ignored Neville's protests about being carted around on Xanxus' shoulder.

"Shall we go for a flight Hope?"

* * *

After a flight with Hope, Luna began her projects. First was hacking the Cavallone which was actually easier said than done; they kept a lot of things on secure networks but a few things she did find allowed her to build a better picture of them and their capabilities. Mukuro would have his own report too, but hers would have less obvious bias.

The second was starting on the mirror project. Communication mirrors would be so handy; fragile until charmed otherwise but they'd be untraceable too unlike phones. She tinkered with ways to prevent stolen mirrors from being used against the mirror networks and other possible uses they could be put to.

She just needed to figure out how to connect them all in... and maybe make them able to use the internet too... keyboard possibilities so that communications could not be overheard... lots of ideas.

* * *

It was decided that Lancia would be the escort to the estate properly, much like it was decided that Neville's presence wasn't exactly required so he could stay behind to work to restore some of the flower beds. Ken probably would tag along, and Chikusa too; kids or not, they were raised and trained as human weapons and they liked Lancia.

Mukuro had intervened on her normal wardrobe and insisted on something else -what was wrong with her choice of clothing?- and even brushed her hair. The latter she liked even if Mukuro complained about her being a grown woman and should know how to take care of her hair so he wouldn't have to take scissors to take out the worst of the tangles. Eventually he decides to just style her hair the way he wants when Luna decides not to protest.

She has bangs now. That's something she's never had before, so it's different. He's left a few locks of hair longer to frame her face and used one of the flowery hair clips to keep some of it in place. The rest of her hair is left long but pulled into an up-do and decorated with wispy feathers.

It's a different look for her. Mukuro has her in professional black clothing. She has been informed that silver has been reserved for special occasions, dark blue for more serious but still casual occasions and light blue is for semi-casual among allies. Her other clothing is fine but not to be worn outside the estate unless on very friendly ground.

She lets Mukuro fuss; he shows his worry in the oddest ways.

"Do you think we could do something with Xanxus' hair?" She asks.

Mukuro's reflection looks contemplative.

* * *

They don't have to. Xanxus knows how to dress himself for a prospective meeting, feathers in the hair and all; he passes Mukuro's examination even as scowls.

"Mukuro's lacking feathers." Luna observes.

"Why should I wear them?" The illusionist asks.

"They're defiance." Xanxus explains, leaving out the story behind the explanation; he's clearly not in the mood to really share it either.

Mukuro quirks an eyebrow and smirks. He's now wearing an ear cuff with small soft and curling black feathers with small chains ending in small little charms.

* * *

Dino and his fellows are escorted to the Boss' Office by Lancia. Xanxus ends up with the position of 'Boss' by default; Mukuro is too young to be respected and listened to and Luna lacks a reputation outside of the Vongola.

(Her reputation among their fledgling Vongola is mixed; brilliant but insane in a quietly dreaming fashion. A veritable lunatic, but one that knows the secrets of a world long gone. Where else would she have gotten a hellhoud's puppies or found an actual druid with all his strange plants? No one has actually bothered her, partly due to Xanxus and Mukuro and partly due to her own box weapon; dragons are so misunderstood.)

Dino is chronologically younger than Xanxus, she learns later, but Dino appears older than his years. He's handsome in a fashion that would have girls giggling over him had he not had an air of the weary and worn; grief, deep and nearly tangible walked in his shadow. Even the tattoos that peak out around the neck and the wrist appear faded. Still he moves with energy and a war-won confidence that's only momentarily surprised to see Xanxus behind the desk.

To Dino's left is a young girl, wearing a suit. Luna knows she's the Giglio Nero Boss. Luna also knows that despite how she appears, she's actually older than Xanxus; probably. Byakuran had bragged to her on occasion; his 'coups' that were possible in this world compared to others, so Luna knows more about this girl's history than she'd care to admit to. Byakuran had timed things just right (or wrong) to kill off the Acrobaleno with the form of energy radiation that would destroy them.

Aria had been young and her famiglia had been grieving so that made it easy to steal her and hold her hostage against her own famiglia. Then, as she started growing into her mother's gifts, that is when he started drugging her; one or another or a combination of them had the effect of retarding her physical growth. Aria appears, at best, to be half her age.

To Aria's left is another of the Giglio Nero; Luna knows the face but not the name of the blond man that seems to have just left his teenage years behind him. He's protective about his charge though.

To Dino's right is a man with short silver hair and equally pale predatory eyes. His build is slim and he carries a sword with him. He's a swordsman and looks as if he's just found some particularly tasty prey.

"Voooi! You're Vongola?"

Xanxus just snots in response, because he's sitting at the desk and that's apparent for everyone there.

"This is... unexpected. To see you here, Xanxus." Dino begins. He opens his mouth again, only to close it with a pointed clack of his teeth.

"Life's strange pony-boy." Xanxus replies, dismissing the small talk with a shrug.

"Well," Aria sighs. "Let's introduce ourselves and discuss what we really need to discuss -the Tri-ni-sette. Then we can discuss what we're going to do with ourselves and the world before it all goes to hell when I die."

"Princess!" The blond calls.

* * *

Aria is living like a woman that is assured that she's going to die and die soon.

Not in the fashion of 'enjoy life today, for yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come' but in the 'I promise myself that I will enjoy every minute of the days that are given to me to live.' The difference is subtle but profound.

After years of Byakuran, Luna knows exactly what Aria is feeling; although how aware Aria was of what she's done while under Byakuran's control is debatable.

Now that they don't have to endure that rule, they find that life is far more enjoyable.

* * *

"Let me start off. My name is Aria. I'm twenty-five. I've found that I like spicy food and teasing my family. I'm short and look like a kid but that's not any of your business. I'm the Sky Acrobaleno and Boss of the Giglio Nero. Now, your turn Gamma."

"My name is Gamma. I'm loyal to the Giglio Nero." The blond replies.

"Finish that introduction properly." Aria commands.

"I'm twenty and like shooting pool." Gamma adds with a sigh.

"Dino of the Cavallone. 10th Boss. I'm nineteen and I like my famiglia."

"Squalo Superbi. World's Best Swordsman. Annoyed at Xanxus for killing Tyr. Same age as this fool." The swordsman replied, gesturing at Dino.

"Squalo!" Dino squeaks in embarrassment.

"Who's Tyr?" Xanxus asked, genuinely perplexed.

"He was head of the Varia and the Sword Emperor. I was going to kill him and claim his title myself." The swordsman growled.

"Don't remember him." Xanxus replied, shrugging off the glare with ease.

"Back on track, people. You, introduce yourself." Aria commanded.

"Xanxus. Twenty-one. Worst vigilante ever."

"Rukudo Mukuro. I'm twelve. I hate the mafia."

"Luna, daughter of Xenophilus and Pandora. I don't care about my age and I killed Byakuran with a little help from Mukuro and Xanxus."

"Good. Now that we're all introduced, we can talk about the Tri-ni-Sette and how we're all fucked should I die before we get some of this mess fixed."

* * *

It probably isn't fair to Dino and Squalo that they haven't heard about the Tri-ni-Sette before, but Luna can't help but giggle about their faces; not disbelieving but a bit dubious about the shoddiness of it all. She wonders if she should mention Kawahira but figures it is best not to. She does have to wonder how the Giglio Nero lost the Mare Rings in the first place or did they give them up when Aria's mother became the Sky Acrobaleno?

In short, if Aria dies now, the world is going with her; she's the Sky Acrobaleno and the only one out of the Tri-ni-Sette doing her damn job now that she's able to do it properly.

The other Acrobaleno at least have the excuse of being dead, as do the Vongola.

Luna has the Mare ring, but she's not a Sky. While it's not a terrible idea for her to keep it -she really did earn its loyalty when she killed Byakuran despite their incompatible flames- it won't hold the world together should Aria die; Luna just can't power and use it properly.

The rest of the Mare Rings at least have owners; ones matched to the proper flame types but reclaiming them is going to be a lot of work. The Mare rings are supposed to be part of a set so having completely incompatible people -to the Sky- is a bad idea no matter how strong their flames are; Luna and the rest are opposed to the Millefiore and those that still have the rings are most likely devotees of Byakuran.

One of the first acts Aria achieved after she found herself being herself again was to gain the Tri-ni-Sette that could be claimed instantly; that amounted to the Acrobaleno pacifiers and the Vongola Rings. The others were reclaim her famiglia, marshal them to action and make it clear she was in charge so some of the bullshit they got away with under Byakuran's rule wasn't allowed and if they weren't happy about it she would be happy to shoot them. Right  _now_.

The obvious solution is to give the Mare Ring Luna has to a Sky that isn't busy being a pillar of the world like Aria. The world needs at least one pillar supporting it; two would be better but three is best. Xanxus has already refused the Mare Ring once.

Dino finds himself perplexed to be entrusted with the ring and less than happy about the mission to hunt down the rest of the set. Squalo at least looks happy at that.

This means that the Vongola -her, Xanxus and Mukuro- clearly need to have the Vongola Rings; the other Vongola Rings will need Guardians too. It all hinges on whether or not the ring accepts Xanxus and his resolve.

* * *

Xanxus lights a flame on the ring and twitches a few times.

He opens his eyes and they're clear. "I don't have the bloodline, but Primo's willing to loan the ring for a few years provided I make a search for any of those of the bloodline. It might be extinct with all the upheaval, and if it is and I find proof then it's on permanent loan to my bloodline."

"So Vongola's Primo is willing to drag some innocent into the Underworld?" Mukuro purrs. "He clearly isn't the sainted hero of the Underworld he's portrayed as."

"That's my impression of it too." Xanxus replies. "History warps over time."

"Any idea of where and how to look?" Aria asks. Xanxus shrugs.

"Too thorough?" Luna asks Xanxus.

"The latter. At best we might get a bastard out of the Ninth's sons, or maybe that fool that was head of CEDEF; the Ninth says he was of Primo's bloodline and the Ninth rightly hates me but he's willing to cooperate because Primo said to. At worst we're going to have to find some earlier Vongola bastard's get and uproot them."

That they're doing 'to save the world' is so ironic it's hilarious. They're the worst vigilantes ever and have been volunteered to save the world.

"Well, alright. Vongola's Primo is a jerk but the world's not going to stop spinning should my heart stop beating now so my mission as the Sky Acrobaleno is done today. Now as the Giglio Nero Boss, we need to talk alliance and terms because that needs doing too."

Xanxus laughs and both she and Mukuro join in.

"Weren't you paying attention? We're not a mafia famiglia; we're a vigilante group." Xanxus points out.

"Worst vigilantes ever." Mukuro adds helpfully.

"We help and heal and build yes, but not for power or out of a sense of justice or any sort of obligation or restitution. The previous Vongola failed for a reason and not just because Xanxus is good at killing those he deems as his enemies; the Vongola failed itself first. The design was good, but it lost its spirit. We're hoping that this spirit endures." Luna replies.

"That was a beautiful speech." Aria says as she sniffles and dabs her eyes with her sleeves.

"I think she's a lunatic." Squalo offers.

"Being a lunatic is better than merely being loony." Luna tells him with a fey smile.

* * *

"Okay. How does a mafia famiglia ally with a vigilante group?" Dino asks.

"Stop being mafia." Mukuro offers.

"Yeah it's a nice thought... I don't that'll work. I never wanted to be a mafia boss, but when my father died and the famiglia had to rely on me... that was a sort of responsibility that I had to step up to; not just for my famiglia but for the citizens that rely on us for protection. We had to bow our heads to Byakuran once, but I cannot and will not ask my men to abandon each other after all we've suffered and endured with each other as family. We survived and did our best and I carry with me the spirits of those who died so I will not demean their sacrifice, their lives and dreams just to re-establish an alliance that the Cavallone and Vongola traditionally had."

"The Cavallone might have to wear a bridle and bit for Byakuran but he cannot and will not break our spirits." Squalo muttered, rolling his eyes at the ridiculousness of the line.

"Exactly. So, that condition is refused." Dino replies.

"The traditional agreement is mostly fine and it was written back when Primo was in charge so the Vongola wasn't mafia-mafia yet; it was one of his last acts before retiring and Secondo negotiated a lot of it on Primo's behalf." Xanxus offers; he's clearly done his research. "We're going to want to tweak the wording in a few areas; modernize it and clarify in a few places to account for changing times and other shit. We are also going to have to make considerations and clauses because we don't have a CEDEF yet and we may not ever have one or the Varia. We're not large enough for it yet and who knows how we're going to grow."

"I don't like it." Mukuro states petulantly.

"I don't like it either." Dino almost growls. "I'm going to be allying with _Xanxus_  of all people and I'm now a pillar of support for the world that's going to have to regain the rest of his set of rings from whoever has them now from whatever part of the world they're in now unless I want the world to slowly self-destruct. Stop being selfish."

"Selfish? You know nothing, Dino Cavallone. I have plenty of reasons to hate the mafia. The first is the Estraneo. The second are those that funded the Estraneo-"

"And the Estraneo were fucking trash." Squalo cuts in. "Worse is that they were fucking stupid about it. The mafia isn't a kind place so those that knew turned a blind eye to what that trash was doing, but now that you fucking know that brat what are you going to do? Boo-fucking-hoo and take your anger out on the wrong people or do something about the right people and the goddamn system that allowed the situation to happen in the first damn place? Because right here, right now, you've got the best damn chance at managing the second and if you don't take it all that's going to happen is you're going to be a whiny little bitch for the rest of your goddamn life."

"Squalo wha-" Dino starts to say but is interrupted by a bullet flying past him. It's followed by three more.

"Language, Squalo." Aria scolds. "That sort of language is inappropriate."

"What the fuck? You loli-hypocrite!" Squalo yells, sword held in a threatening gesture.

"I allowed myself to say such things because the situation called for it. The possibility of the world ending at any moment allows for such language. You shouldn't use such language in front of a child in other circumstance though."

"Crazy loli!" Squalo roars; the sonic attack proves ineffective though.

"Whatever. We have terms to discuss Xanxus." Aria purrs.

"Great." Xanxus sighs. "Is there an already existing contract in place that can be renewed or modified?"

"Nope. We get to make one from  _scratch._ " The lolita boss seems far too delighted in an ironic way at the prospect.

* * *

Mukuro left halfway through that meeting. Luna added a bit here and there; mostly her presence was unneeded beyond being a witness.

Quickly Xanxus and Aria hammered out a basic alliance contract; mutual support, passing on information and an agreement to favor trade agreements from each other.

Aria, her bodyguard and Dino left.

"Squalo?" Dino prompted near the door.

"Got something to say first." Squalo assured Dino, who nodded and waited in the hall.

"What is it?"

"When you reform the Varia, I want to be part of it."

"What makes you think I'll do that?" Xanxus asks, raising an eyebrow for good measure.

"Because when you find the Vongola brat with the right bloodline and flame, you're going to be out of a job and it's not your nature to sit around and do nothing. You're going to want to fight and kill and the Varia will be the Vongola's sword and shield. I want in on that."

"Aren't you part of the Cavallone?" Luna mentions.

"I'm a freelancer, and I know a few more that would be happy to find a family. Dino's nice, he's an old school friend of mine see, but he's a bit too traditional for some of us looking for a place to belong."

Xanxus' looks at the swordsman and weighs the future.

"Gotta find that brat first, if he or she is even alive. If we don't, you've got yourself a Varia; your interview requires finding and retrieving the missing Mare Rings for the Cavallone."

"Right, Boss."

* * *

"He's a strange one." Luna observers.

"That's very strange coming from you, Lunatic."

"I'm just as sane as you are."

"Go find Mukuro. See if that brat's alright. He's useful."

"You can say you care normally. It won't kill you."

"Whatever."

* * *

Finding Mukuro was not an easy task.

Finding Neville on the other hand was far easier.

She should probably feel guilty for eavesdropping but she doesn't; she feels blessed to have witnessed it instead.

They're in the center of the hedge maze. Neville is trimming the hedges, while Mukuro lounges on a stone bench.

"That swordsman doesn't understand. The mafia is a filthy stain on humanity and the world. It does nothing but cause misery and despair."

"How so?"

"It's a mess. The System in Southern Italy has only gotten worse and spread out, and a lot of the Famiglia's in North Italy are just gone so it's war up there over territory and stupid things that don't even matter."

"That doesn't sound good at all."

"It's not. Stuff like that is happening all over the world because of the mafia."

"Are you sure it's because of the mafia and not just human nature? The woman who tortured my parents to insanity was following her ideals to extremely violent ends but the man who showed up to protect his godson despite the fact he was wanted and would lose his soul if he was caught were from the same family and taught the same values."

"I've lived six lives before this one and I remember them because of the damned Estraneo and their experiments. I know human nature and it's the mafia."

"I've only lived this one life so I wouldn't know what it's like. Dying and being reborn like that... remembering all those past lives. That sounds very hard; a lot of people find just the one life too hard. It makes me wonder how a phoenix does it. At mine and Luna's school our headmaster had a phoenix."

"The immortal bird?"

"Yes. His name was Fawkes. I'm not Dumbledore and I don't want to be, so I doubt he'd come if I called, but you're a Mist which means you can make a call like that be heard. Well, if you want to, I think."

"I'll try." Mukuro took a moment to focus and seconds and then a minute passed with no result. Then Fawkes appeared in a blaze of song to land on Mukuro's thin arm.

"Hullo, Fawkes." Neville called to the bird. Fawkes raised a wing towards him, as if waving.

"So beautiful." Mukuro speaks, as a hand reaches up to pet the phoenix on his arm. Fawkes trilled and sang as Mukuro petted the swan sized bird; Neville made no mention of Mukuro's tears.

Luna decided to leave them to their privacy.

* * *

"Mukuro's coming to terms with some things at the moment." Luna informs Xanxus. "So he's not going to be available for the rest of the day."

Xanxus snorts.

"So any idea on where to start our search? Get it done and over with if it's possible?" She asks.

"Do you know how to scry?" He asks.

"No, I don't."

"Damn. Any chance of learning anytime soon?"

"Scrying is a form of divination and my talent there is lacking; there are tests for that. I took Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures for a reason and studied Runes on the side."

"So no neat magical solution."

"When has the world ever worked like that?"

"In storybooks." Xanxus replies sullenly.

"Stories are supposed to end all nice and neat with happily ever afters."

"Well, if life was a storybook, then we've turned the fairy tale on its head."

"The princess, a young magician and the dragon work together to kill the King of the World's Empire. Then they go on to protect the dragon's territory and its people from threats."

"By being the worst vigilantes ever."

"Yeah, we are. The thing is, people think we're doing a good job."

"Seriously?" Xanxus asks, pleasantly surprised and a little shocked.

"I think wackspurts are getting to their brains."

"Whatever. We've got work to do and an impossible quest from Primo."

"Impossible quests are another fairy tale staple, aren't they?"

"Yeah, but what sort of quest involves  _research_?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No idea when I'll write the third section out but it'll get out there... eventually.  
> More quotes from more places find their place in here; including Luna quoting herself. Others are from tumblr (specifically some of the daily love quotes) and others from famous people. I really should credit them all, but some quotes have been extensively altered to the point that their meaning is altered so I don't think that counts... (plagiarism is a tricky concept made more complicated since this is fanfiction after all.)
> 
> I wonder if anyone has picked up on an underlying theme that I've had in place; not the obvious ones of gods, planets and the like because those are obvious. Very curious about this. Not sure when part three of three will be out but I've got other things to work on. (XAiPP I mean you!)
> 
> Also, there's probably a lot of tense errors. This is what I get for writing this in the present tense. (Luna why?)
> 
> As for the timeline, Byakuran started coming to obvious power when they were Squalo and Dino were 13/14-ish. Dino's dad was dying, Dino needed training/protected, Reborn was dead and Squalo was at loose ends because Byakuran started a forceful takeover of the mafia which involved killing off obstacles like Tyr, the Varia and the Vongola. So this Squalo never fought Tyr, lost his hand or grew his hair out because he was too busy keeping Dino alive under contract. Dino found growing up in a war to be very difficult. (Poor Dino.)


	3. Chapter 3

**Warnings** : AU!HP, EWE, HP!Character Deaths, AU!KHR, Alt!Byakuran, torture, physical violence, implied rape, Crazy!Byakuran, KHR!Character Deaths and more that I'm probably forgetting. Why am I writing this?

* * *

 

Primo's Impossible Quest, as it has become known among them, requires a lot of research. The Vongola has always had a bloodline based succession and Bosses with Sky Flames. Xanxus might be wearing the Vongola Ring but the only reason he could do so and live was due to Primo's intervention on his behalf; otherwise it would have rejected him. It was clear the Sky Ring was on loan only. It came with conditions too, like finding someone who actually could wear the ring and take the position of Boss.

To start with, there was the official Vongola family tree to investigate, which was actually far more useless than a person would think. It descended from Ricardo and highlights all the Bosses and how they were related. In a very vague fashion.

The official family tree only includes those with Sky Flames as they were the only ones with a chance at inheriting the famiglia. So there are relatives with Sun Flames, Rain Flames and others that aren't Skies who just fade out of prominence along with their offspring. They are still part of the bloodline though, even if their descendants have no chance at inheriting the famiglia unless they happen to be born with Sky Flames.

Only those with Sky Flames were allowed to use the Vongola surname within records and in public; it was a security feature for the sons and daughters of the Vongola that couldn't inherit so they weren't so easily found and turned into political pawns or breeders for the famed gift of hyper-intuition. They still had the bloodline and its gift but they weren't exactly well-monitored after two or so generations. A lot of people have just disappeared from the records. So far, no one can say if it was intentional or not.

Tracing the sons is hard enough. Finding the daughters that married, their offspring and their offspring's children is a massive task. Add in the cultural context of the time and how powerful some of the men involved were... there are likely a fair share of bastards throughout history too. All of whom are technically eligible should they be Skies.

Add in the ravages of time, various wars and riots then consider the nature of archives and human error that could easily lose a piece of paper with all the information needed... because nearly two centuries is a lot of history to comb through.

Primo's Impossible Quest indeed.

* * *

They still have other things going on. Training, being the worst vigilantes ever and building the Vongola. They have to protect the Vongola and make sure it stays protected.

"Lunatic, the druid has flames now. I have no idea what the fuck they are." Xanxus declares as he drops Neville -who he had been carrying- on the floor. Luna looks up from the mess of research surrounding her.

"What do they do?"

"They make things grow." Neville replies. "My staff is now an oak tree in a training room."

"Neville has always been good at growing things, even with the more dangerous plants in Herbology. Fanged geraniums are one thing but Venomous Tentaculas, Whomping Willows and more require specialist handling."

"I have no idea what any of those are but you're most likely to know what sort of weirdness this is." Xanxus declares.

"Aren't they Dying Will Flames?" She asks.

Xanxus nods, because that much was obvious.

"But they're not Sun or anything we know of, right?"

Xanxus nods again.

"And the tests said that Neville was Sun-primary."

"Rain-secondary."

"Cloud tertiary." Neville adds.

"Well, either the tests are wrong -despite lots of evidence from the Millefiore's research otherwise- or we and that bastard missed something."

"Clearly."

"I suppose that means we're going to have to keep Neville away from the researchers until we have an idea of what suits him and get him a ring and box that suits him."

Xanxus just growls. There's a lot of Xanxus-speak in it that growl that says things like 'there goes my free-time' and 'that makes the Sun-bear box weapon useless' among other less polite things.

"By the way, we're going to have to do something about my arm. It's blooming." Neville says, pulling up his sleeve to show his living prosthetic off; the plant seems to have fused with his skin on that arm as well.

"Does it fruit too?" Luna queries dreamily.

The expressions she gets in return are worth it.

* * *

The most annoying thing about research, Luna feels, is staying on topic.

Part of this, Luna feels is due to the complexity of Italy's history. She gets distracted by it, even from a less than magical perspective. When you've had Binns drone on and on about Goblin Rebellions and magical inventions from about a century prior to the founding of Hogwarts to about fifty years prior to his death, all from overly sanitized textbooks, reading primary sources was far more invigorating.

Usually, Luna amended as she yawned.

* * *

"I think I hate the Sixth." She says aloud later.

It has become custom for them to discuss such things after the evening meal. A way for them to update everyone on various points of interest, as they may not always be up in time for breakfast. Mukuro and his cohort of experimental lab rats seemed to have discovered how to sleep in until lunch; when they're not sleeping until noon, they're eating everything within reach and being bratty teenage human weapons. Lancia mothers them when he's not gardening and burying his sins in the dirt.

"Should I ask?" Neville questions as he pours the wine he was served at dinner into a nearby plant. The plant seems to perk up before her eyes before it settles down into contentment. Luna isn't sure what sort of plant it is but it might be new; or else it could just be obscure and exotic. Neville has been busy while she was buried in history.

"No, go on. Tell us. It can't be worse than Terzo." Mukuro goads.

* * *

Xanxus has complained about the lack of information on Terzo at length. His reign was short in that he was assassinated at a young-ish age; exactly thirteen years after he inherited the Vongola from Ricardo, the Secondo.

Ricardo had protected the Vongola exceedingly well with his strength and fury throughout his nearly forty years as the Vongola's Boss. He became feared throughout Europe and even in parts of Asia and Africa. The Vongola became harder and crueler under his rule, but they thrived and continued to protect the people in their territory, even as that territory expanded.

Luna thought that Ricardo had managed to keep the Vongola's spirit -Primo's idea- alive, even if the Vongola had learned to protect itself and its interests instead of solely protecting the people they protected and their interests. How could they help others if they could not even protect their own? That's the problem with putting others first; you've taught them you come second and always putting yourself second will eventually destroy you.

The spirit that the Vongola had been founded on, doing 'right' by morals and their people if not always by the laws, had been lost later. Vigilantism is motivated by feelings and no one could deny Secondo's Wrath; it protected the Vongola that was precious to him.

Wrath requires a cause, an investment in that cause and deep devotion to it. It is not the product of mere frustration or anger.

Primo's half-sibling may not have been raised by Primo's paternal family -Ricardo was raised by his mother after their father died and Primo was raised by their grandparents- but he believed in his older brother's ideals and protected them fiercely as something precious to him. This included the Vongola, its business and all of its people.

How could anyone say that the Vongola really changed under him? He did the same as Primo, after all. Ricardo wasn't Primo, nor did he try to become him; it wouldn't work for him, so he found something that did which accomplished much the same. There was change, yes, and more change for the changing times and the changing views held by the people but the essence was still the same.

Vongola's spirit wasn't lost during Ricardo's rule, but Luna's not certain about when it really was lost either.

* * *

(Oh, it might have been the Sixth that lost that spirit or maybe someone else; the Seventh's reign was surprisingly short and Ottava had idolized Primo's legend and moved the Vongola closer back to what it was. Ottava spoke with pride about the legacy she had shaped for her son in blood and sin; the Vongola that her father had inherited from his father and shaped was far different from the one she was leaving to her son. The records proved that.

Or it could be Luna's bias against the Sixth and the fact that Ottava really was worthy of all the admiration she obtained; she's been Luna's favorite Boss to read about. She has liked the Sixth's successors much better than the Sixth. She's pretty certain she really does hate the Sixth but clearly being a terrible person wasn't genetic.)

* * *

Living to one's sixties in that time, especially given the dangerous lifestyle Ricardo led, was a testament to his strength and skill. He then skipped over his numerous children -both by blood and adoption that were being researched too because Ricardo often didn't clarify who was which- and named Terzo his successor.

The lack of information on Terzo was honestly worse than could be expected as no one had expected Ricardo to name that particular grandson as his successor, so the third Don Vongola had mostly slipped out of notice until just prior to then; the majority had favored the man who would become Quarto who was better known as Pietro Vongola, to the point that even the CEDEF approved of Pietro.

That was when Terzo was chosen by Ricardo in what was described as 'a bout of contrariness and obstainance from Second' by other people who weren't the Boss. This led to the first acknowledged Ring Battle and the beginning of the rule of 'loser serves the winner' within the Vongola and its allies. Then Terzo protected the famiglia until his death, although Terzo didn't command the fear and respect his grandfather did.

In fact, despite looking very hard, they still hadn't found Terzo's actual name; he signed everything with his nickname Pessimo or as Terzo Vongola. Terzo also had not kept very many personal records himself either so Xanxus was having to study everything in the library from Terzo's time instead of just skimming for small personal details like he had managed throughout Ricardo's and Giotto's reign. Details from Primo's time were sketchy and considered somewhat unreliable because someone had not very subtly cleansed them but it was hard to say who had done such or when.

Terzo in direct contrast to the lack of detail in his personal life kept meticulous notes about the everything else. Xanxus has complained bitterly and at length about how he now knows exactly what was served at a lot of Terzo's social gatherings, the decorations, fashion, dinner placements and everything except what he wanted to know.

* * *

"I'm reading Simora's memoirs." Luna announces. "They're pretty horrible."

Mukuro snarls. "He's mafia. Of course he's terrible."

"It's utterly dry reading. Even his praise of his favorite whorehouse he visited while his wife was visiting her family with their children is dry."

Neville blushes, as Mukuro laughs at what she said. Xanxus and Lancia are amused but are trying not to show it. The Vongola Bosses are human, not saints, no matter what everyone else might say.

"At least you're up to the Sixth in your research. I'm still trying to figure out if Terzo died a virgin at the age of thirty seven." Xanxus replies only to meet laughter and her smile.

Luna personally suspects that Terzo may have preferred other men, which would explain the utter dearth of personal records. At that time being such was very, very unsafe due to the Church considering it an offense and not keeping any records at all would have been less risky than having to constantly remember to keep something back. Plus, Boss of the Vongola or not, it wouldn't change the fact that people are often very much emotional creatures, easily influenced and heavily biased. Luna might share the thought of Terzo's assassination was an inside job for that very reason with Xanxus later.

* * *

Tackling a problem at both ends is only sensible when it comes to research; Luna knows she'll have to go over her research again as distant family and their trees come to light from Xanxus' work but those are branch families and the various adoptees.

The first three Bosses of the Vongola adopted numerous children in addition to having their own; most of Primo's adoptees were fully grown by the time Primo had left for Japan where he lived out his retirement and married, although Primo's actual bloodline -not just relatives but actual descendants- was in Japan or had been because Iemitsu clearly hadn't been when he died. Luna has the research to prove it, but she wasn't sure if Iemitsu ever had children and would need to travel for such research.

Xanxus had a head-start in the research due to looking into the start of the Vongola, the deals made with allies and more; although he had lost said head-start due to other work for their Vongola as its Boss and having to look at  _everything_  from Terzo's time. So it made sense for him to start from Primo, the relatives that were still living in that time and work his way down the family tree. Constructing an actual accurate tree was a work in progress. Time, war and secrecy for protection were working against them in getting all the details down accurately though.

Primo was a vigilante but he wasn't a saint; neither were all his relatives of which he had his fair share. Giotto's parents died when Giotto was young and his mother some years before his father, but his grandparents took him in and he grew up with cousins, aunts and uncles nearby. Some of whom joined the Vongola in various fashions and some that didn't or later left it. Some practices of the past were more morally acceptable than others so... he wasn't a saint. He was a better man than many of his era though.

Luna -despite her detours in history- on the other hand was targeting things from the other end. The Ninth was dead, as were his legitimate children. However finding details about dates, liaisons and the like were more about business than pleasure. Any more personal details weren't written down, mostly because Luna thought that most men stopped keeping journals sometime during the nineteen fifties unless they grew up with the habit; maybe because keeping a 'diary' was girly or something?

That was something of a shame, as the Ninth and his sons could have had children -legitimate or otherwise- the current Vongola Vigilantes didn't know about and had no way of tracking down at the moment barring a miracle or inspiration.

Then Primo's Impossible Quest could be finished. Primo just wanted the Vongola in his family's -no matter how distant- hands.

That meant finding someone with the bloodline and right flame alignment.

Honestly, Luna wasn't getting her hopes up.

* * *

"So figured out a weapon yet, lunatic?" Xanxus asks at the edge of the armory.

"I don't think I could use the more traditional weapons for Clouds. I can't." Luna explains, but no further.

She knows that the dragon in Xanxus understands exactly why the restraining weapons like cuffs, chains and more are so abhorrent to Luna. She can manage a whip of magic well enough but not one of leather or steel.

"I suppose you haven't figured out a way to make your mirrors combat capable then?"

"There's an interesting curse that allows you to trap people in mirrors, but I'm focusing more on communication and computation than as a weapon at the moment. I have an idea about how to use them defensively using the same principle of the curse but maybe modified as a way to amplify any captured flames as a mean for offense. An amplification loop will be needed but there will have to be controls on that to siphon any off for offense; don't want to break the mirrors or their enchantments."

"I have a suggestion." Xanxus says and then leaves this armory.

Luna follows.

"You suck with a bow and aren't comfortable with guns, so try this."

"This is a boomerang." Luna states, because it looks like one. Not entirely, as there's a handle so it can be used as a held weapon as well.

Xanxus nods.

"I don't know how to use it."

"There's information around here somewhere."

"I hate the Sixth."

"So? You need a weapon. This is odd enough, you can multiply it and pin people down should it be needed. It comes back to you and can be modified so it works even when you're on your flying man-eating horse or even that dragon of yours."

Luna looks at him.

"It can also be magnified to be used as a shield. If you get your mirrors worked out then you can plaster them on it, let it go through your mirrors in mirror space or something to surprise enemies. Mukuro and I fight well, but we're also the hardest hitters. If we're too busy watching our flanks, we can't fight all out. That draws battles out, wrecks more property and as we're nominally vigilantes protecting the people means we can't abandon them to be taken hostages or some shit."

"I'll have to schedule in some practice time." Luna replies. "Although that does mean less time for my projects and Primo's Impossible Quest."

"You're getting minions."

"There are better ways of telling someone they've been promoted."

Xanxus snorts and walks on.

* * *

Despite her expectations contrary to it, the boomerang when used as a weapon does come rather naturally to Luna.

It really is a better weapon than a person would first think and for all the reasons Xanxus named. Xanxus is annoyingly right about far too many things.

Her boomerang -which she's thinking about naming if only so as to not think about the Sixth who did use an actual boomerang instead of whatever this was- could also be cloned with Cloud Flames to swarm.

Luna thinks that it could be fun to learn to juggle with them.

She still hates the Sixth. Slimeball.

* * *

"So the amount of actual progress on Primo's Impossible Quest remains minimal?" Lancia asks two weeks later.

"We've got a tree." Xanxus proclaims. "It's pretty bare."

"That's not quite true; it's quite a large and branching tree. Only somewhat lacking in Orange. It's quite colorful." Luna adds, because they've commandeered a nearby room and papered the walls in notes covering birthday's and deathday's, multiple marriages -usually due to someone's death- and more. It is a glorious mess and a riot of colors and papers and notes.

It is even color-coordinated, denoting Flame-types and relationships between them. There are even strings that go between various family trees, as a way to make sure no one overlaps too much. Sometimes the more distant and not so distant branches of the family tree entwined instead of forked; sons and daughters marrying distant cousins and step-siblings marrying each other.

Luna has also learned to hate the names Elena, Silvia and Maria because they are so common and the differences between the various women is not always specified. Luna has minions that are learning to despise the same names as well. There are numerous names that repeat on the male side of gender but they tend to be more specific about which male they're referring to as a matter of principle.

"There's still more to research and that lunatic has people camped out in archives working."

"They are not camping."

"They're sleeping and working in there. They just need a fire and camp fire songs."

(It says a lot about them that they don't bring up the possibility of toasting marshmallows over the fire. Byakuran is dead, his empire broken but the influence remains, especially among those who were more than passingly familiar with the white devil and his fondness for the sweets.)

"Are they telling each other ghost stories?" Mukuro smiles as he says this.

"I'm not paying them to do so." Xanxus replies.

Unsaid is that Xanxus will probably peek in under some sort of excuse and make sure they're not. Luna can mention his nesting dragon tendencies later where Xanxus' first action won't be denial of actually caring. Then it will just be silence, and acknowledgment of it possibly being true before potential stalking off to do as he wishes.

"Ghosts..." Neville murmurs in Italian before switching to English. "Does the Vongola have any of them hanging around? We could ask them for clarification, if they've been around long enough."

"Ghosts are real?" Lancia questions, paling considerably.

Luna remembers that Lancia did murder his famiglia quite willingly for the damaged kids -survivors of the Estraneo- that he took in and grew attached to; so as to prevent more experiments and broken children. Mafia or not, Lancia doesn't have the ability to kill without grief, even if they weren't his famiglia. Facing the ghosts of the famiglia he murdered...

"Mine and Luna's school was quite haunted, we even had a ghost as a teacher, but I haven't really seen all that many here..." Neville adds. "I mean you'd think there would be because the mafia doesn't really lend itself to well, not making ghosts. Bad deaths tend to do that."

"There are ways to prevent that happening." Xanxus explains but doesn't elaborate.

"So it's a good idea, but not practical unless you want to find some ouija boards." Their resident illusionist explains.

"What are those?" Their resident druid questions.

"They're wooden boards and you communicate with spirits through the use of letters on the board."

"Strange. Why not ask directly?"

"Most people can't see the dead, much less hear them." Mukuro clarifies.

"Seems pretty inefficient to me." Neville admits. "Whatever happened to that stone of Harry's?"

"I tossed it in the ocean." Luna remarks. "I didn't need it at the time and that was after Harry was dead."

"So dead end?"

Luna smiles. "Not quite, but it's a lead to follow."

"Go for it." Xanxus commands. "Not as this damn quest isn't bullshit anyways."

* * *

The sea is wide and vast. No one who had ever seen it in person could doubt such a thing. No one could ever know all it contained or once had. Secrets the seas might be found in the shallows, but more than that ends up swept away in the currents.

Items of history long past and present often wash upon the shores, sometimes to disappear beneath the sand and waves again.

England was an island.

Sicily was an island.

A stone felt the need of its master and drifted along on deep currents.

The things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the manner we expect.

* * *

Even with Primo's Impossible Quest being the most important ongoing project didn't mean that it was the only project being done. The Vongola was still building its forces, protecting its claimed territory and finding ways to profit and innovate. It was also restoring the land, buildings and people within its territory, turning simple sand and remains into treasures and precious pearls.

Luna did find hacking to be fun and exercise for the brain; it was a break from reading and researching all that was printed and kept in the Vongola's archives. It also allowed her to relax and rest physically from the exercise in the training room; Xanxus was unforgiving and terrible to face even when Luna had Neville working with her. Neville had gotten sneakier since he had used Dream Pollen on Xanxus this time; Xanxus was sleeping it off in his bedroom.

Plus enemies found it hard to attack the Vongola if they didn't have the funds to even travel, and found themselves constantly booked on the wrong flights or the registered flight path goes missing.

The third international incident -although nations and their territories are shaky ideas still- causes Mukuro to sigh.

"You have terrible habits." He tells her.

Luna tries not to giggle as she re-draws the flight plan.

"You're artistic talents need work." He adds.

Luna pouts. "What would you suggest then?"

"It depends on which filthy mafia famiglia is trying to enter the country. Maybe next time you mock them with something more symbolic and less adolescent toilet humor?"

"But isn't this a classic?" She asks.

* * *

"Lunatic, there are more people that the Flame tests are lying about." Xanxus complains as he makes himself at home on a nearby couch.

"Really?" Luna asks, placing a bookmark in her chosen research material, since reading upside down in a foreign language was getting easier with practice but holding a conversation at the same time was currently beyond her. Plus, she doesn't exactly want to continue reading at the moment. The handwriting was far from the easiest to read.

Xanxus just nods.

"Well, more protectors are always a good thing."

"Some bastard pulled up a damn mountain in one of the training rooms."

"I'll fix it." She tells him.

"Any theory about this?"

"We've expanded the criteria for the flame energy search and haven't picked up anything new. So either we're not looking for whatever flames these are properly or they're not actually any of the Sky Flames."

"Sky Flames." He says, sitting up on the couch. "Storm, Rain, Sun, Lightning, Cloud and Mist."

"Yes, that is their names."

"Why are they named such? Why not, Red, Blue, Colors or after properties like Destruction?"

"Oh." Luna says, as she understands what he means. It really is a big 'oh' and Luna feels ashamed for not having caught it before. "You think there was another set of flames? Something that's been lost?"

Xanxus smiles. It looks less vicious than usual; clearly Xanxus is tired.

"We've got someone capable of making mountains and growing plants. Things of the earth." She begins. "So we're calling them Earth Flames. We can work out the specific properties and names later."

"We've also got to figure out rings and boxes for them too. Damn druid has a ring now but it can be better..."

"That can be done later. Get a nap first." Luna states, wisely leaving off the 'you'll be grumpy later if you don't' from her words. Then again, the dragon probably hears her thinking it just fine.

* * *

"Ah, Duate why is Simora your successor?" Luna complains at the dinner table. Duate -the Fifth Boss of the Vongola and Quatro's son- died suddenly in his mid fifties; no one was sure if it was natural or not. He took over from his father after the Quarto had ruled for a dozen years and died when his son was only twenty-three.

Luna knows exactly why the title went to the Sixth but Luna hates him so she's in favor of being dramatic. None of Duate's five male children had Sky Flames, and so the title of Boss went to Simora, the Sixth. Simora didn't rule for long -not even a decade- because his son, even with weak Sky Flames, was already an adult with children of his own. It was decided even before Simora became the Sixth that the Seventh -Fabio- would marry Duate's daughter, Maria on the condition that gender wouldn't matter for which child would inherit after him. That Daniela was the only child of that match who had Sky Flames had made it almost certain that Daniela would rule after her father. She still had to defeat two of her cousins to become Ottava.

"Why did you have to die?" She wails dramatically at the unfairness of it.

"If you weep and wail and bitch anymore during dinner, I'm shooting you."

Dinner quiets down after that. Luna steals  _all_  the dessert in revenge. All of it, even if Mukuro remarks about it not being very adult behavior. Luna just shrugs and takes another bite of the tiramasu.

Neville pours more of his wine into the plant he has been giving wine to for months.

"Is that good for the plant?" Mukuro asks, since no one else is going to or had. Xanxus has been frowning at Neville's habit but hasn't said anything.

"It's either I give it wine or it breaks into the wine pantry. This is easier." Neville explains.

Lancia just nods.

Mukuro looks dumbfounded.

Xanxus gives a threat to the potted plant. "I'll burn you if you ever do that again."

That Neville has mentioned breaking and entering suggests after all that it has already happened at least once. The plant shivers and shakes as if a wind was blowing.

The illusionist looks as if he's going to say something and then just gives up as he hides his face in his hands. Magic's quirks still make Mukuro appear to act oddly, if you didn't know that he was a creature of 'how' and not 'why.' Mukuro is also fond of logic, and science even if he was perfectly capable of ignoring both.

Neville starts speaking soothing words to the plant and it stops shivering.

* * *

(Neville has improved the Vongola's landscaping but some of his choices are stranger than others. Lancia has helped to plant and take care of a number of them, burying sins and watching hope bloom all the same.

It's good for all of them really.

The Vongola has always been eccentric. Now their estate reflects that.)

* * *

Luna is tinkering with the designs for her latest set of mirrors. Basic communication -image and voice capabilities- is easy. Even designating who to connect with via vocal command is easy. Passwords are also easy. Eavesdropping protection is also basic, and a minor task. The mirrors make for secure, untraceable communication.

Getting all the other extra features she wants is more trying. Being unbreakable is also easy; bullets and even motor vehicle crashes won't even scratch them. A few mirrors were sacrificed in the name of science to work out how to prevent damage from Flames; if they can survive Xanxus' Wrath Flames, they can survive any other Flame. Those were practically simple in comparison to some of the other issues.

The mirrors really do make communication so much easier and secure; they're in frequent use really because Luna needs her prototypes tested for data. Vigilantes -no matter how terrible they actually are at being vigilantes- do need that much. Bad communication could be spelled disaster, death and destruction. They did pick up most of the Vongola's enemies after moving in and Xanxus has a hoard of self-perpetuating enemies by himself.

The next addition is a little trickier. She's not charming a personality onto the mirror; she's trying to create a mainframe and hardware so that she can program software onto it. It won't be etched into the mirror like the runes but into the magic of the mirror's enchantments, layered in such a way that it can do everything she wants it to do. It's a massive project because she doesn't want to stop at just what a computer can do. There are going to be supercomputers that are less complicated for all that Luna lacks the parts for such a thing. It's a brand new field, so she has to create everything from scratch unlike the other enchantments which already existed in one form or another; once the 'hardware' is done though, all that's required is the software and that's easy enough.

Voice recognition for certain functions, search capabilities, projection capabilities or hologram capabilities in other word. Laser systems for scanning, combine that with light projection and she could have an imaginary keyboard. Oh, there's so much more that she could do once she figures out how!

The problem is how to fold such programming into the magic of the mirror. She could use computer parts but it would break within a few weeks; computers required precisely calibrated pieces on the circuitry level. Replacing complete parts was one thing but a part of a part that was off ever so much and it would stop working.

She's stumped and is not enjoying it.

At least the mirrors can take 'pictures' and 'videos' now even if the video part needs work as it's in black and white at the moment. Refining that beyond a single 'shot' requires the ability to program and that's a mess in progress.

* * *

Lancia knocks on her mirror workshop's door frame as the door is open. Her workshop of mirrors was technically her front room; the Vongola Headquarters was an old building and personal rooms are in suites. There are mirrors all over the walls, piled on the floor and on top of several desks she has pushed together in the center of the room. There are also dust cloths, engraving tools and several reference books: computer language manuals, history of computing books, rune primers and more.

"Oh, goodie. A visitor and not one of my usual menaces." Luna says, happy to drop research and development for a while. "Do you want tea?"

"I've been warned about your tea from Mukuro."

Luna hides her blush about that incident poorly. Mukuro had a reaction to the magical catnip tea, as did his chimera friend; Mukuro mellowed considerably and could not stop giggling, but Ken did not mellow. Chikusa pointedly went stone-still and did not scramble around like a drugged cat and stayed quiet throughout the afternoon tea even as his companions stumbled around like drunken fools and got distracted by the curtains. Chikusa found it to be simply a very nice mint tea, as did Luna, magical mint not withstanding.

"Hot water and a tea bag of Earl Grey then?"

"That," Lancia says before he pauses to take a steadying breath, "would be preferred."

"I suppose it would be."

Luna then scrounges up her tea set; one she had charmed and enchanted herself while restoring and enchanting the Vongola Estate that's been referred to as the 'Iron Fort.' As she's living in the Underworld and not the magical world, the enchantments are subtle; unbreakable, self heating, and a minor ward to divert any pesky pest that would try to steal her sugar. It also self-cleans the cups by vanishing what was in them after a set amount of time; Luna has lost several spoons already but she doesn't wish to make friends with mold cultures. She has human friends even if Xanxus is clearly a dragon in disguise.

She then finds her boxes of tea. A lot of the cheap boxes of tea are purely muggle but there are some that use magical ingredients and those boxes holding the magical teabags and blends are less boxes and more of tins. Letting some of them interact with each other is a bad idea.

Her current design work is cleared off the desk; if by cleared you mean placed on a pile of nearby mirrors. The tea set is arranged in the cleared area and then the packet of Earl Gray is opened, placed in a cup and hot water is poured from the kettle.

"I'd apologize for the mess, except I like it."

"I... it's obvious that you..."

"I'm a witch. Yes. I have magic. I was born with it, like my parents and their parents were born with it. It is a talent that I spent years learning how to use properly, only to give most of it up by living here, as did Neville." She pours her own hot water into her own cup, relishing in the smell of fresh tea steeping. "There is not a lot more I can tell you unless I marry you. There are provisions on what you can tell people in the International Statue of Secrecy and breaking that leads to prison."

"That's like omerta?"

"Yes, although I technically have broken some of it already but the thestrals and twin-wolves can be lied about; most are happy to assume they're genetic experiments of some sort, same with Neville's plants so they don't ask further even if they suspect something. Most of us live in areas warded away from those without such a talent, and are quite happy to stay away from the people that would invoke mass hysteria and restart such as pointless waste of life like the witch hunts were since most of those with magic were able to avoid them but not all if they were too young. The real tragedy is how many weren't the least bit magical were killed. That's covered well enough in history I believe."

"So the ghosts?"

"There are none haunting you that I've seen."

"What about other-"

"Are you proposing marriage, Lancia? I'm flattered, but I'll have to turn you down. You might have better luck asking Neville."

He sputters at that proposition and takes a sip of his tea and grimaces, before adding sugar to it.

"So why does Xanxus and Mukuro know?"

"Xanxus has killed a lot of people and Mukuro has possessed a number while working for Byakuran." Luna tells him. "I just clarified things for them, because Byakuran ruined not just the world but a lot of communities hidden within it. These communities kept watch over and contained all sorts of nasties to the best of their abilities. Monsters, cursed individuals, species that prey on humans..."

"They're real?"

"Yes, the werewolves, vampires, dragons and unicorns. Some are or were far greater than they were seen to be. I had a werewolf for a teacher one year, and there was a centaur who taught an elective at school. The groundskeeper was part-giant and another professor was part goblin. The staff was big on diversity, really."

Luna smiles then, a frail bitter one as she closes her eyes. Then and only then does she start to speak.

"There are more precious and wonderful and terrible things than you could dream of but the worst... the worst and best monsters are always people. You have to remember that. We had only just got out of a war; both sides pulling out trumps at the last minute. A dramatic final battle, people on both sides dying and far too many bleeding wounds and prejudice infecting society. There wasn't even a chance to rebuild truly. There was a lull and then more fighting. Byakuran saw to that."

The rest of the tea is spent in silence.

* * *

"Lancia," She says, gaining his attention and stalling him by the door. "Monsters don't grieve."

That statement sends Lancia off with a greater speed than is polite.

"The question that goes unanswered is am I grieving for others or for my former self?"

She swishes the tea three times in her left hand, and studies the shapes.

The tea provides no clear answer.

* * *

Lying with the truth is so very easy.

The devil is in the details.

Xanxus has killed a lot of people, but she doesn't know if he's ever killed anyone magical. He hadn't really reacted to the news of Luna being a witch. He reacted more to some displays of magic, but that was out of sheer practicality, reacting to the usefulness or maybe a confused stare at an excessive and pointlessly flamboyant display; none of which were done by Luna.

Mukuro had never interacted with magic prior to her; Mukuro may not have it, but he'd have investigated it properly if he had. He has likely since found his own way through wards and found his own willing informants; as Mukuro is against the mafia, he's also against mafia behaviors like forcibly possessing people now unless he's doing it to various mafia people. There are mentions of an Ethics Committee in the works, but that just proves he's being a proper vigilante instead of a filthy mafia man. Somehow, despite starting off as 'the worst vigilantes ever' Mukuro has become better, since his motivations were not entirely for himself anymore. Not much, but better. Vigilantes were not motivated by vengeance.

Monsters are many things -shadows under the bed, creatures of the night, wildness beyond the ken of men- but the worst are people. They build, meddle and destroy things that are better left alone.

(One continues to plague her dreams, uttering thanks amidst praises of her mind and body.

Maybe the devil that lives in details is white like little lies.)

* * *

She'd much rather deal with a dragon and monsters than people.

The dragon might be dangerous, possessive and arrogant but he wasn't a would be god of a man, burning with brilliance.

Gods can be killed. Those that aspire to the ranks of divinity should not forget this, nor forget that those doing the killing are not always gods themselves.

* * *

Neville asks Luna to walk with him through the gardens; he wants to show them off as they bloom for him. Luna preforms a wandless charm and now it's impossible to overhear their conversation unless someone is physically present. Recording devices and more just pick up static.

(Luna's tested this against Byakuran. It was a gamble then, but it is a habit now.)

Luna and Neville fall into the same habits that allowed them to fend off the Carrows and spirit away students without notice. They're adapted to the environment, so instead of innocuous questions about schoolwork and studies it is pointing out flowers, plants and more.

(Luna and Neville have always been outcasts together if not friends. Them understanding what each other said so perfectly had always stumped Ginny so terribly.)

"The landscaping here is going well. I might be able to spare more than quick visits back home."

(Haven is more than home, but it is a home as well. Not Luna's though. Luna's is improving. Neville is staying, if not full-time. He never was. Their friendship was built on understanding, not common interests.)

"I suppose the plants shoot up like bamboo. My home will be covered in flowers. Won't it be magical?"

(All things grow. Bamboo are spears in the ground reaching for the sky. Flowers and blood both bloom. Lancia. Magic.)

"I suppose I'll have to pray that it's not too overgrown."

(Religion. I'll take care of it.)

Luna just hums thoughtfully.

* * *

"So how goes the Impossible Quest?" Chikusa asks, peeking into the mess that holds the extensive and presumed accurate Vongola Family Tree.

Luna knew that Ginny's family was large, but while the only Vongola with only seven legitimate children was the Seventh, most managed around three with Ottava having just Nono, but some of the others had extensive broods; the Fifth had ten children. Then those children -especially those that didn't have Sky Flames- tended to have records about them disappear, especially in regards to their children. Three generations removed and those searching might as well be chasing their tails. Records and any sort of evidence are hard to find.

"Rather well on the Family Tree front. I've learned interesting history facts, some of them from Xanxus. Did you know Quatro told Secondo and Terzo that if he had to become Boss that he'd stab people with a fork? So when he did become Boss, he did."

"As someone that uses an unusual weapon myself, I am unsurprised."

"So what are you here for?"

"Tea, of course. I have a suggestion that may help speed the actual finding part as a price."

Luna hums. The tea is cheap of course, but Chikusa's favored tea is still a magical tea and it's hard to get in Sicily; they all prefer coffee, even in the magical districts. Chikusa is a tea person and not afraid to raid her stash with Ken. She's had to hide a number of them with magic.

A suggestion might be helpful -Chikusa is logical and methodical and he's really the organizer behind Mukuro's growing Ethics Committee- and he might think about something that would go faster than searching for people by asking around in a war-torn world. Stranger danger is a very apt way of describing the world; although hair-trigger is also a phrase to use in conjunction with that.

"Listen carefully and remember. The catnip tea in in the red tin in the window, second to the left." While it was an excessive method for hiding tea, the fidelius worked.

"Red tin in window. Second left."

"And the suggestion?"

"If like calls to like and blood to blood, the bones must do similar." He smirks. "We have catacombs."

"The green tea is in the blue tin under my work desk." She adds.

Chikusa practically skips out of the room.

Luna feels like skipping herself.

* * *

As it was before noon, Luna knew that Xanxus was likely in the office; he preferred to get the paperwork and meetings done before then so he could have lunch without interruptions. Then he could spend the afternoon doing as he wished: training, creating, researching or even napping.

That sort of schedule only happened on good days because the Vongola was still busy proving its strength and ruling the territory. Luna and Mukuro often worked to hamstring said enemies. They both enjoyed doing so.

(Some still got through. They tended to run into dragons if they tried to do so by air. Xanxus was only one of them.)

She knocks and lets herself in.

"Oh, hello. Superbia right?"

"Squalo Superbi." The swordsman corrects.

"The shark has killed all the trash holding the Mare Rings. Bronco's got them now, so Squalo is ours now."

"Does that mean he'll be reforming the Varia?"

"If the Boss will let me." Squalo smirks as he relays that.

"So how is an organization of assassins suppose to work together or for an organization of vigilantes?" Luna asks aloud.

"Paid vigilantism for other people so long as it supports our agenda." Xanxus mutters. There's a growl or two in there that Luna thinks means 'whatever our agenda is' and 'no, go ask Mukuro. He's the idiot that came up with this agenda.' The growls are fondly exasperated after all.

The assassin turned Boss continues in a more understandable language, "As brilliant as your work is and as good as that illusionist brat is, you guys can't be everywhere. Plus there's gonna be shit that the brat's Committee can't get into or do. The Varia being reformed gives us more hands and skilled people who can work internationally since the EC is working locally first. The shark just needs to find them now."

"Housing? Food? Customers? Resources?" She questions as she turns to Squalo.

"A lot of that can work off of the old Varia model." Squalo adds. "We might even manage to recruit some of them back. Doubt it though."

"Has that model been updated? Is the castle habitable? Who is going to keep it clean? How up to date is the equipment there? How much will it cost to replace it? Refurbish?" She continues.

Squalo frowns. "I'll have to have a look. Talk to people and crunch numbers."

"Talk to the lunatic tomorrow. Have pictures and a report ready. She worked fucking miracles with this place."

The short-haired swordsman frowns. "Fine." He agrees.

"Also," Xanxus continues as he reaches into the desk drawer, pulls a box out and tosses it towards the swordsman. "Take this."

"The Vongola Rings?"

"Wear the Rain and find the others. Lancia is willing to take up the Storm Ring but doesn't want to keep it if we can find someone better and the damn druid has some freaky Flames that aren't Sun-Flames. Primo's given us a fucking impossible quest if you care to remember and we've torn apart the libraries looking for information. We're going to have to actually start getting out there and chasing down people from census records and talking to people. So you find those who won't get killed doing stupid shit and I can work with."

"Actually if you don't mind a bit of grave-robbing and a minor miracle, we can probably just start finding people without asking around." Luna interjects.

Squalo gave her a look. It's nostalgic to see.

"What." He croaks a demand. The swordsman is confused.

"Oh, it's quite simple really. I do my job and you do yours, Squalo Superbi. You shouldn't worry too much about your job. I'm certain you can make friends too. Just be sure to inform them that just because you're giving them a ring doesn't mean they think more than that. I'm terrible at comforting people with broken hearts."

Xanxus is wheezing with effort to contain his laughter, before he gives up the appearance of trying for dignity and laughs fully.

Squalo is gaping like a fish and only flushes when Luna informs him that it's unbecoming of a shark to do so. Xanxus is now back to wheezing but that's because he's laughing too much to breathe.

* * *

Lunch is interesting in that Luna thinks Squalo is now utterly convinced that she's an actual lunatic even if Luna has informed him that she was just being witty.

Squalo finds her allusions to be riddles; he's a very straightforward man. He thinks with vectors instead of angles or in circles. Angles can be obtuse and Squalo is very sharp like the sword he carries. He adapts to cut her allusions into shreds as fast as possible.

Squalo gets a mirror, instructions on how to use it -she has worked out how to get not only photos, but video in color and sound too. Her mirror project is still not to the level she wants it to be; functions like this are easy enough as they just require a switches to turn on and then save. Navigating the saved data -displays and how the information is marked and stored- was actually trickier even if it was so basic on a computer. She's still working kinks out and tells Squalo such.

The swordsman is then sent off to see the castle that once belonged to the Varia. Luna hopes that she doesn't have to work as many repair miracles with the castle compared to the estate; actually, Luna should also get him to take pictures or video of the grounds too. She calls him on the mirror to say such. Neville has emerged victorious from the battle with the Vongola's Estate's extensive grounds even if the grass wages a periodical campaign of rebellion that has to be mowed down.

"Explain the grave robbing bit to me." Xanxus drawls lazily.

"Like calls to like. Blood to blood, bone to bone. Generally speaking it could work. The accuracy can be improved and modified if we narrow down the search further. It's practically perfect, really. We just need to be borrowing a few bones from the Ninth, Seventh, Fifth and Third from the catacombs."

As Primo was buried in Japan, he clearly wasn't available to take a few bones from.

"Odd numbers. Why?"

"The Y-chromosome actually. It doesn't change much generation to generation but Secondo is Terzo's paternal grandfather. The Fifth is Quarto's son, but Quatro's mother was Secondo's daughter. The Seventh is similar except it was the Sixth's grandmother who was maternally descended from Ricardo. The Ninth of course, is descended from his mother who cannot pass on a Y-chromosome being female. That Y-chromosome would also be shared by his sons and any of their male descendants."

"So any male with those Y-chromosomes we can certainly pin-point as having Vongola heritage."

"More or less anyway, as they might have had male relatives who weren't Vongola, so it's not a hundred percent guarantee. The Y-chromosome gives us the best odds though."

"What about others?"

"Yes, of course. Other chromosomes can be tracked, but it is harder to make matches as similarities can disappear within a few generations. Women are also better at hiding genetic links as you have to look at everything, mitochondrial DNA notwithstanding. There's a 50/50 chance between which X-chromosome passes on; same with the others. Then you add on the mess that crossing over during meiosis causes... it's much easier to track and compare the Y-chromosome. Still, the others will have to be tracked in the name of thoroughness."

Xanxus waves her off. "Go do your magic."

"I wonder what the former Bosses might say about this."

"They can blame Primo."

* * *

Currents are every where.

They move in cycles and due to temperature and pressure.

They connect things, pointing, pushing and pulling. From past to present to future.

This connection pulls in ideas, objects, people and locations.

Some call it fate.

Some prefer to think it coincidence.

Others might prefer to think of it as destiny.

A ring washes ashore.

It is picked up.

Things lost will always come back to us, if not in the manner we expect.

* * *

Squalo shows her the pictures of the Varia's base the next day. It's an absurd hour in the morning but Luna hasn't gone to sleep yet. She's got her first tracker proto-type theoretically working, which might be why she missed him entering her room.

"You are being remarkably forward by showing up in a woman's rooms unannounced. Have I missed you falling in love with me, after you've left Dino? Will you get in a sword fight, be banished from the city after we wed only to commit suicide with me later?"

"Voi! Not Romeo, and you're not Juliet. Nor are the Vongola and Cavallone feuding." Squalo states flatly and a little wide-eyed.

"You have no sense of humor."

"No, I'm more of a Tybalt except I kill Romeo which ends the play early." He corrects. "Juliet becomes a widow, marries that guy she was supposed to marry and there's no double-suicide."

"I'd make a terrible Juliet anyway." Luna admits. "So how terrible are the grounds and castle?"

"In need of a miracle." Squalo admits, handing over the mirror.

"I can work those." Luna says. Then she starts scrolling through the damage. She is horrified at the amount of work she'll have to put in to fix it. "I know that I know what happened to it but I can't quite recall it at the moment due to shock and horror. Time has only made it worse."

"Rumor was some sort of laser from some satellite in space. I think that was the most widely believed rumor, if you ignore all the religious crap about God smiting a cabal of demons and devils since the Varia's skills and the quality of them were legendary in mafia circles."

"That's going to take more than a few minor miracles. Do you have any particular building plans in particular? Like what's your opinion on sky lights? Because if you do have one, tell me about them at a reasonable time in the morning, like over breakfast."

"Umm. Will do. Later."

Squalo then went out her window with the same ease he had broken into it with.

Luna frowned as she looked at the window. Just because you couldn't break the glass of the window from the outside didn't mean that it couldn't be opened. As Squalo had proven.

"This is the third floor." She mutters, before using magic to secure the window.

Something she'll mentioned to Xanxus later this morning.

* * *

"Your puppy is very energetic." Luna tells Xanxus later that morning.

"I have a puppy?"

"His name is Squalo."

Xanxus snorts and Luna interprets that to mean, 'that's funny, but I'm never going to get that idea out of my head now.'

"That castle is going to require far more work than this estate did and materials brought in as well. Repairs will take several months if I have to balance that project with others. There is still obtaining the materials, which is slightly problematic."

Xanxus looks at her and commands, "Drop or delegate."

"You can take up my mirror project now since most of it is now in the software stage so it's mostly in need of programming as the research part of Primo's Impossible Quest is practically done. I need to get out, so I can take care of the seeking part of the Quest and my minions are getting reassigned somewhere; I'm keeping some of them to help transition people I pick up into the Vongola. I'm going to need to do so and go, because I'm most able to transport and protect a large group, although I'd like an illusionist or two with me. Mukuro's been training some of them and drilling them on ethics so they won't be coerced so much as persuaded to come back."

Xanxus nods and then returns to the mess that's on his desk. He mutters unkind things about Primo, Terzo, paperwork and more that blur into growls.

Luna decides to slip a note in with her reference books about fixing the security on the windows. Xanxus will be borrowing them later, so he'll see it eventually.

* * *

Luna seeks out Neville. Not just because she wants to talk to him but for exercise too. She's been too wrapped up in projects -mostly her mirror issue since she had minions for the research into Primo's Impossible Quest- to do more than use the unspent physical energy to work later into the night.

Training has slid by due to research but a few hours ought to allow her to re-familiarize herself with Mirror Edge; that particular project is tentatively successful, although there are still kinks to work out. Those mirrors can absorb and hold flames, but it can't really use any other feature beyond being able to maneuver as Luna wishes; the mirrors move far too slow to be useful in combat at the moment.

The landscaping she asked Neville to do is nearly complete. At least the physical work. The other aspects are a work in progress. There are science minions at work finding how to replicate what potions do with just science, there are minions producing weapons, there are minions maintaining and protecting businesses, minions working in construction and more. They have lots of minions really. They're actually making a profit now.

Mukuro and his cohorts are much better than they were, especially in soul. Ken is always going to be wild and Chikusa too quiet but at least Mukuro is now willing to admit there is good in the world.

Lancia on the other hand...

"My apologies, Miss Luna." Lancia tells her as he takes her hand within his. "I had gotten the wrong sort of idea and my suspicion of you was truly abominable behavior."

"Oh, pish-tosh. You have a religious soul and the Church isn't always the most honest of organizations. It's fine to have respect for religion, even believe in it but never forget that it is an idea. Religions, like all other ideas deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, even our lovely disrespect."

"That means your apology is accepted, Lancia." Neville interprets for the Italian, using Lancia's native language. Luna had said what she had in English because it was easiest for her.

"I thought it meant that Luna was an understanding person who knew your behavior was abominable and decided to ignore it because it wasn't that important." Mukuro's voice tells them, in Italian.

"Oh, you make such a pretty bird Mukuro." Luna says, in English.

"But Mukuro is mal-" Neville starts. "Oh, that's what you mean." He finishes as a bird hops onto Luna's arm.

"Of course it is." Luna informs Neville, as she pets the possessed bird.

"It's not my problem that he has a Mastery in Cluelessness from the University of Life." Mukuro tweets.

"There's a University of Life?"

"Sounds convenient, really." Luna adds. "I don't think we ever finished school did we Neville?"

"No, but we had Hermione. We covered the curriculum and more in some areas but the Ministry wasn't really in shape to give tests, much less grade them. Plus with the school as it was..."

"Isn't it nice that we had different callings so we didn't need those tests then? Some people don't have them but think they should and it gets them all tangled up."

"I have a calling?"

"Neville, you're a druid." Mukuro chirps.

"Oh, I keep forgetting that." Neville says with a sheepish smile that said he did remember that.

Lancia laughs, and the rest of them join in. Laughter is the best medicine for the soul.

* * *

Actually, with the bones and a bit of magic it really is easy to locate other relatives; the first few tests were inconclusive as really, Luna and the rest knew that there were Vongola bones in the catacombs and graveyards nearby. She revised the search mechanism and told the minions to prepare for those she picks up and possible recruits.

Spending a few evenings with a thestral flying Luna as she wished, meant Luna visited a number of cemeteries. Her trusty steed Hope was paid in steak. A notice-me-not and a disillusionment was enough to allow her to sneak by in many ways, but if conflict comes she does have a few weapons; none of which are all that traditional for Clouds.

(Her mirrors were still a work in progress but she could use the boomerang very effectively now. If nothing else, Hermione the box dragon is dependably ruthless and scary.)

It was a lot of work, but worth it as she took in several children -not always the ones she was actually looking for because churches took kids in and were easy targets next to cemeteries holding more bones- and then she found a few that were. She marks them off a list and on a map, to steal away into the night; sometimes with rescuees, all adult and children with older eyes than they should have.

She only forcibly relocated three of them and that was because Hope and the thestral herd scared them. The rest were quite willing to come by themselves, even as disconcerting as thestrals were. Thestrals were quite gentle after all, but flying on them was really hard for those would couldn't see them, but a saddle was handy for a reference point should they remain that innocent.

She dumped the majority of them onto Mukuro and his people; if he was serious about his 'Ethics Committee' then he'd need people. Some of them were older than he was -which meant they might be able to pass as old enough to drive legally- but they'd all need food, training and education which Mukuro and the Vongola could provide even if he couldn't provide certificates and papers... yet. Forgers and sympathizers in the Government? Something she'd have to discuss with Mukuro since 'controlling or otherwise possessing people' was very much mafia behavior. They had to have a way out, otherwise...

As they were vigilantes, they couldn't force those rescued to join but neither would they withhold the documentation that would allow them to leave the Vongola. Coercement of that sort wasn't allowed in the Ethics Committee as it was 'mafia behavior.'

(Well, other than the former Millefiore that they had converted after kidnapping but those were converts. Not rescued children.)

* * *

Her favorite was a little blue-eyed brunette that was probably one of the Sixth's bastards. She hadn't made the potion to determine his actual lineage but Luna truly suspected so. He took to her version of the boomerang with ease.

He had active Rain Flames and couldn't remember his actual name, except that it started with the letter 'B.' Bene-something.

Neville, who was still less than perfect with Italian called him Basil.

The name stuck and started a trend for all the nameless foundlings brought in.

* * *

Basil was folded into Mukuro's expanding Ethics Committee. Part of the EC's duties was the education and protection of those brought into the Vongola; especially those that were younger than them. Even if it was only by a few months. They managed the health and education of the wards taken in by them.  _It was,_  as Mukuro wrote,  _their ethical duty as vigilantes that not only protected their people but cared for them for the good of the community. It would be unethical to force them to have to stay outside of conventional society due to a lack of education or credentials should they wish to leave_.

Luna didn't know that Mukuro could write so eloquently and fervently until she had read the EC's rulebook which explained how and why as vigilantes numerous mafia-behaviors were off limits.

Except, it seemed, against confirmed mafia members. Then everything was allowed. Mukuro wasn't exactly self-righteous; he was motivated by hatred, not justice. He might be a better vigilante than she or Xanxus was, but not by much.

 _There was_ , as Mukuro phrased it,  _a difference between those who worked outside the common laws for the betterment of their community and those who ignored such laws to prey on the people and their resources._   _That difference is an important one, that had to be maintained for society to flourish_.

Luna's still reading it when Xanxus storms in, picks her and her weapon up and takes them off to test the modifications he's done to her mirrors. He shows her the functions of it which seem to have expanded even if she's not sure how since enchantments and software are two completely different things. She can find out how Xanxus has done so later.

She does test the mirrors; the work faster and she can manipulate them with a thought. A touch of Cloud Flames and she has as a wall of them. Both features are really handy since Xanxus has brought out his guns for a 'simple spar.' The absorption function in the mirrors can actually absorb bullets and not just the flames. Very handy. Some of the functions are more... clunky than others, but some of that could just be her inexperience.

She's panting but grinning, when she remembers Mukuro's EC book.

She hands it to him, "We might have an issue."

Xanxus flips through it. "I see. I'll talk to the illusionist. You get the shark."

* * *

"So why are you reforming the Varia? You weren't part of it I believe." Luna asks the swordsman as she walks him through the mostly restored castle; there are a few areas that Luna hasn't touched, mostly because a person didn't exactly need magic to know that the Varia kept a number of objects sealed and hidden away within their castle. Luna was curious; not suicidal. If a pack of assassins thought that some cursed items were dangerous enough to be sealed away, then they were best kept sealed. The fact was, those rooms and the seals survived intact. That said a lot about the degree of security involved.

The castle is rather bare, but that's because all of the damaged furniture, wall hangings and more had been removed. They were in the process of replacing them and reworking security but that had been handed off to Luna's minions.

"Nah, got an invite to it before Byakuran made a big mess and Tyr was killed. As I was only willing to join due to having a chance to fight Tyr, I decided against actually joining; didn't even get that far in my preparations for the fight either. I was going to cut off my hand to understand how he fought and then got the news the fucker died on me. I still understand how he fights but since I didn't have a deadline like a match I didn't have to go to extremes which is good as then I'd need a prosthetic which would kinda suck. I'd also be stuck fighting like him the rest of my life too. Then after sticking it out with Dino for a while I went on a training trip around the world. I couldn't bow my head to that mad fucker, even for the slightest bit. It was a lot of trouble, but worth it."

"Sounds fun."

"Oh, it was. Met some interesting people, killed a lot more; even a lot of the Millefiore bastards. Learned an interesting sword style or six. My favorite's the Shigure Soen Ryu, but that's my current favorite. It might be something different next week."

Luna's been listening, and decides to reciprocate. "I spent my teenage years rebelling against a government that had been taken over by a local terrorist cult who had plenty of fiscal support from 'pillars of the community.' Our side of the conflict won, although with losses. A few months after that, Byakuran came. Neville, I and a friend of ours ran a resistance group. It was a terrible time."

"So how'd you end up here?"

"Got captured. Not the first time, but I was being used as a hostage then so my treatment wasn't so bad. I got along quite well with my fellow captives, planned an escape. We did get out eventually but Dobby died for it. Being captured a second time was more trying, even if my prison was much better outfitted. You could almost forget that it was a cell, except for the fact that Apollo was fascinated and tried to make me burn with him."

Squalo as sharp as he is, understands what she implies. Thankfully there's not a look of pity on his face or in his eyes.

"So I made him fall in love with me while I subtly twisted him to my own ends, which allowed me enough freedom to start gumming up the workings of his empire with sand. So I made sure that he'd remove the Cervello for me, which was easier than you'd think as they hated me. Xanxus ended up assigned as my guard, Mukuro noticed the sand and followed it back. A while later, we arranged for a method to get Byakuran alone. So then I killed Byakuran and as a side effect, we might have burned down part of Londonium."

(London was built on Londonium, the Roman settlement. London had long since spread further than Londonium had ever reached but reports about the 'Great Blaze' mentioned it had scorched part of London down to the bedrock and a little deeper. So if Londonium was anywhere near the Ministry, then what might have been there disappeared under fiendfyre and Wrath Flames.)

"That doesn't explain the Vongola or vigilante thing."

"Oh, that's easy. None of us could live a civilian life. The Underworld was the only place for us, but we couldn't be mafia if for differing personal reasons. So, Xanxus, Mukuro and I decided to carve out our own place in the Underworld that wasn't mafia."

"What's wrong with the mafia, really?"

"Eh, I think it's mostly Mukuro that's against the mafia and he has his reasons. Xanxus grew up mafia, more or less. I just wandered into the Underworld but a lot of mafia famiglias wouldn't like anyone with personal ties to Byakuran, or someone as non-conformist as I am. Vigilantism is nice, but it doesn't pay bills or put food on the table. Taking money for said vigilantism would be protection so we can't exactly do that. Hence the hacking, general looting of enemies and focus on production. There's some focus on shipping, but most of that has been outsourced to Cavallone for a percentage of the profits of items moved."

"So why vigilantes?"

"Vigilantism allowed us to raid our enemies and look good while doing it. We're still pretty much the worst vigilantes ever, but Mukuro's really gotten into it. I think he took your advice to heart."

Squalo gives her a look.

"He's really still not got the hang of the vigilante thing. Not really. Vigilantes are all supposed to be about justice, truth and non-corruption. Mukuro's motivated by hatred of all things mafia. So you can see why we're a bit worried about the EC given its importance to the Vongola."

"So Varia beware and behave or the EC will maul you." Squalo states. "He really that good an illusionist?"

"Oh, he's better." Luna affirms. "Now do you think this castle is usable?"

"I'm not even sure how you fixed this up. I am however impressed. Two weeks and it's like this place hasn't been abandoned for years."

"It's not cheap either and it was hard work."

"What do I owe you?"

"There's the material costs of course and some areas still need work, but my minions can give you the numbers and time estimates. You get to play bodyguard and recruiter while I continue work on Primo's Impossible Quest."

Squalo's face is wonderfully caught off guard. He recovers quick enough though. "Voi. Didn't you already find a couple of those?"

"Yes, but none are Skies so far. We've got some hits around Europe to check out but I suspect they're more in-laws than actual relatives. So then we get to traipse around Europe, Asia and then into Japan to track down Primo's actual bloodline. Unless there's actually Vongola blood in Africa, in which I hope there's not. There are plague monsters in some parts of Africa."

"Sounds fun."

"Oh, and we'll be co-opting the EC for travel arrangements. The herd is good, but not exactly comforting for people to see. Especially if they're suspicious people. Some accusations are more annoying than others."

"The fact they eat meat is off-putting."

"So do sharks."

"Eh, if assassins get freaked out by the thestrals they're wimpy enough to not be Varia Quality."

* * *

"So you two will be on a whirlwind tour of Europe? Isn't that a bit sudden of you Luna?" Neville asked at dinner. "You don't really know each other all that well."

"Voi! It just makes sense to go together. We're both looking for people."

Mukuro contributes his own opinion as well. "That sounds a lot like it came from the back of some paperback romance."

"I had thought that Master Xanxus and Lady Luna were close? Are they not together?" Basil queries. It's not Basil's first time at the table, but somewhere in between time on the streets and setting at the table, Basil picked up some old fashioned manners and has kept them ever sense. It's easiest to blame Mukuro but while Mukuro is verbose and eloquent, he's not that formal. Basil's formality is all his own. It might ease off as he becomes more comfortable, but it's equally likely that he won't.

Xanxus' slouch and stark refusal to answer in favor of the wine confirms that he does not want to answer.

"Yes, we are close but not like that. I don't want to look anyone in a romantic fashion for sometime. We-"

"It is not what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable. " Xanxus cuts in. Per usual, Xanxus left off at least half of what most people say.

It is the first confirmation that Xanxus had made of what happened between her and Byakuran. Necessary to kill the would-be God as it was, but the memories clearly rest uneasily for not only her, clearly. She takes it as a sign of his regard for her. Self-loathing was something she knew how to deal with.

"But who prays for Satan? Who, in all the centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"

Xanxus scowls at the comparison and returns to his wine. The rest of the table is trying to connect something seeming so un-connected. Even Neville looks a little lost.

"Luna, as a friend, I care for you deeply even if I do not understand what you are going on about. It might be me, but discussing philosophy and religion isn't dinner table conversation."

"Here, I thought you had a Mastery in Cluelessness, Druid Neville." Mukuro remarks. "You even have a certificate of it in your office."

"I do? What did I do with it?"

"It's on the wall of your office." Lancia tells him.

"Oh. You mean in the Plant Nursery."

"It's your office." Lancia reiterates.

"Maybe at one time..." Neville says with a smirk. "One of the plants ate the papers I had in there."

"We have a paper eating plant?" Basil asks. "Is that not a threat to the libraries and records we have here?"

"If it ate your spending reports I'm burning it." Xanxus growls.

"I've been giving it newspaper. It's fond of tabloids." Neville says sweetly as he pours his glass of wine into the plant he's been giving alcohol to for months.

"Is that safe for that plant?" Basil asks.

* * *

"Any idea of who to start out with? You'll need a core group to begin with. The mafia's rowdy enough but an organization of assassins would be more trying, I think."

"Got a few people in mind, and I don't even have to worry about plant-proofing the place."

"Actually, I've asked Neville to work on the grounds but it shouldn't be so dangerous. It's not planting season, so it's mostly just trimming what was there, I think."

"The druid's kinda plant-crazy."

"His house is a tree."

"Voi, the Vongola takes all kinds. It's always been eccentric like that."

"Fork." Luna says in agreement.

* * *

There are several people that Squalo picks up for his 'core' group. A few are even hitmen.

They're people that Squalo has worked with in the past or knows by reputation.

First, there's a Dr. Shamal who is a hive of diseases like a living human shaped Nundu. He's very polite about her person, even if he doesn't want to treat men he will, but preferably if they're still young enough to have their mother watch over her son as the doctor treats him. He agrees, if only to learn more about the new medicines the Vongola has manged. Some of it was formerly Byakuran's but the dead have no use for medicine or money so the Vongola appropriated it; vigilantism doesn't pay money or put food on the table or else it would be a civil service and they'd be the aurors or was it bobbies? Some muggle terms still confused her.

Second are a pair of siblings. Luna isn't certain why the older sister -a poison specialist- can't look at her brother without feeling sick, but Luna suspects guilt. The sister pushes herself hard so Squalo says she'll do well enough in the Varia. She'll either manage the potentials sent her way or kill them. The younger brother is the sort of troublemaker best fixed by a few months in the EC, which is something that Luna tries not to think about. There are squiggly lines between indoctrination, brainwashing and cultural immersion that are odd to think about.

They pick up a few more 'solid' members, with skills that are of Varia Quality, even if they're being lax in the language requirement. The old Varia demanded seven languages at minimum; in Europe they can manage to find people that were bilingual or more but most civilians are satisfied in speaking just two or three. There are tricks to speed up the assimilation of a new language but Squalo wants a Mist he can trust first. Mukuro is very powerful as a Mist, but while the Varia are assassins first and foremost a lot of them are likely to have mafia backgrounds; some might even be ex-military. So Squalo doesn't want any Mist in someone's head helping them with a language while also doing some subliminal brainwashing.

There are a few more probable bastards and people that Luna felt could be useful, so she made an offer. Generally no one refused because shelter and food in return for work they can do is a welcome prospect in a war-torn world that doesn't exactly have a need for their skills yet. Add on to the fact that the post-Byakuran world is gearing itself up for more war and conflict, having a place of sanctuary is almost too good to be true, despite the mafia connotations the Vongola has regardless of its return to vigilantism, no matter how much they -meaning her, Mukuro and Xaxus- are bad at being vigilantes.

Then there was Bel.

* * *

The thing about traveling together is the fact that if they didn't want people to mistake them for a couple -and they didn't- then they had to be siblings. Platonic friends didn't happen in a war-stressed world all that often. Friends with benefits, but not platonic. Plus neither of them want to be all that couple-like either.

Thankfully with both of them having pale coloring in both hair and eyes, it was a lot easier for people to accept the fiction.

Squalo absolutely hated it. Luna teased him terribly about it and other things.

Squalo was also responsible and fussed over her.

It made for a very believable act, really.

* * *

Bel was actually a King. In hiding. From paperwork and responsibilities towards rebuilding. He named a common peasant as Regent and _ran_. (There was quite a story there but Luna wasn't sure she wanted details.)

Actually he refused to divulge any details about the kingdom, it's name and his actual name other than that as it wasn't important.

Instead, Bel had been waiting for them in their room, in a dress.

Bel had been hiding -somewhat poorly as he refused to remove his crown- as a Bella.

As Bel hadn't given his actual name and Luna refused to call him Bella, he became Bel.

Unfortunately for Squalo, Bel actually was of Varia Quality and refused to stay at the Varia's castle until it was totally prepared for royal inhabitation; in essence, they'd need capable servants and a well appointed castle to be shot of him.

There's an awkward conversation on the mirrors with Basil who has become Xanxus' secretary of sorts as it's afternoon there and Xanxus doesn't want to be bothered by anyone and Basil is good at keeping people away -during the time Bel decides that Luna's name is actually Alice and not Luna- about getting Bel the Vongola's Storm Ring from Lancia. Bianchi and her brother were both Storms, but Xanxus had somehow charmed Bianchi and the brother decided that he and Xanxus were enemies even if Xanxus didn't mean to do that so giving either the Storm Ring would cause complications.

The conversation ends with Basil asking them to stay put in the general area and that someone would be by with the ring and to pick up Bel.

* * *

They meet Xanxus within the week who's clearly in a bad mood. Luna calculates the time difference and travel time and figures that this is due to grumpiness via lack of sleep.

"So this is the brat-king?" Xanxus clearly isn't impressed.

Then Bel attacks with knives. Lots of knives. Xanxus burns them and the knives with nothing but a manifestation of his will and his bare hands.

Bel seethes at the fact he's losing and strikes out physically with Storm Flames.

The terrible thing about facing Xanxus is that he's a powerful Sky even without a ring to use. Skies can negate and nullify the effects and damage other flames can do if they have time and practice at doing so. It makes fighting them so much harder, especially if they have a ring and the other doesn't.

Rings really make a large difference in how easy it is to use Flames. The sheer physical differences between Xanxus and Bel make who is going to lose even more obvious.

"Scrappy little thing." Xanxus comments, holding Bel up easily.

"I am a King. I don't die due to peasants. Ushishishi." Bel giggles, as he pulls a wire.

Judging by the red appearing on Xanxus' long sleeve shirt, the wire manages to cut. Not nearly deep enough though to do any serious damage though since Bel is still being held up by the arm without even a waver.

"Not bad brat. What," he begins, drawing his gun to place at Bel's head,"would you do with this?"

Bel snarls and struggles more in the hold Xanxus has him in.

"Pathetic." Xanxus says, punctuating that with a lovetap from his gun which Luna suspects was not that gentle since it clearly put Bel straight into unconsciousness. "This trash has potential. I'll give him the Storm Ring and see what he does with it. In the meantime, you two have two new missions. One is to get duct tape so I don't have to listen or worry about this brat on the way back. The other is to find Talbot. He's the Vongola's personal ringsmith and has been around since Primo's time. As we don't exactly have a CEDEF and only a few of the Vongola that came back from the Cavallone, he'd legitimize a lot of the shit we're doing. The only reason we're getting away with it is that I favor Secondo so much that the trash believes that I have to be Vongola of some sort."

"And Talbot?" Luna asks, instead of something else, like 'do you want your arm bandaged?'

"Likely in Japan. Which means you can talk to that ramen-freak as well. Talk to him about your magic mirrors."

"Don't you know you're bleeding?" Squalo asks.

"It's just a flesh wound."

"That's a lot of blood for a mere flesh wound." Squalo snarks back.

"I..." Xanxus looks at it. "It is. Great. Poison. Luna?"

Luna's already withdrawing her med kit and grumbling about idiots.

* * *

Later, after Xanxus had taped Bel up and kidnapped the runaway King to the Vongola, Squalo looked at Luna.

Then he comments, "That herb-brat was right. You two are really close."

"I suppose so."

"Suppose?"

"There's more to the truth than just the facts. People are biased."

"And I didn't know you knew medicine. Would have been handy to know."

"You haven't been injured yet so you didn't need to know the latter." She tells him. Then she decides to elaborate. "Squalo, I ran a resistance group at my school when it was taken over by terrorists for a term, until I was taken hostage to hold against my father. Detentions were nothing more than an excuse for torture sessions. Smuggling students to safety had to be done or else they would have been killed. This didn't mean that we could leave them to suffer either, because even if they couldn't fight they could be useful else where. Which means they needed to be able to function."

Squalo nods. "Vooi. That sounds messy. You couldn't just kill them all?"

"Oh, we did. Later, when we knew they wouldn't be replaced by someone worse because there were worse in the organization. There was a very beastly man with a fondness for children, a woman who had tortured people into a vegetative states and others that were more or less equally terrible."

"I suppose they're all dead then."

"Those I mentioned are most certainly so. The Headmaster of the time too, even if he was a double agent. He went from ex-terrorist professor to usurper Headmaster."

"Ex-terrorist professor." Squalo repeats. "This makes the things I've heard about your school from Lancia look tame. Ex-terrorist professor and double-agent. Not even mafia school was that bad."

"I do have to say that under said usurper Headmaster, there was less bullying among the students except for what was sanctioned by the actual terrorist professors and that was just torture. My stuff didn't go missing and I didn't get trapped in a broom closet in an out of the way part of the castle for the weekend."

"You couldn't get out? I mean, how does that work?"

"Magic." Luna sighed. "There are ways to cover for any reasonable escape method but the easiest to do is removal of the wand, especially if they're young. So if I was lucky I'd be noticed missing within hours. Otherwise I had to spend the rest of the weekend at least, in the closet because for a boarding school they weren't exactly caring about curfews and bed counts after first year."

"Voi! And you still helped your fellow students?" He asked.

"Someone had to do it and my friend and Neville were so brave about it as well."

"Tch. What the hell would you even do in a closet for an entire weekend?"

"Meditating for enlightenment."

"I can't even tell if that was a joke." Squalo comments. "What with, ex-terrorist professors and actual terrorist professors and then you have the rest of the staff... plus the the thestrals, the hellhounds and more. What the hell went on at that school?"

"Learning, of course and quite a bit of education."

* * *

Luna did tweak her mirrors here and there and used them to send messages back, if only to wait for an answer. Most of the improvements are mostly 'software' that could be sent to the other mirrors. They text now with holographic keyboards but Luna is working on a voice-to-text feature as well...

Some texts are more entertaining than others.

' _Send tea.'_

_'Busy corralling plants with Nev. The ones around the Varia castle are staging an uprising. We didn't know there were that many corpses in shallow graves around the place. Ask Squalo what he thinks about what we've done with the place. Sending pictures.'_

_'Bianchi won. MacBeth is down. Druid said you have anti-poison goat stone somewhere? We might need it for brat-King. He got into a fight with a bush and lost.'_

_'We have puppies! See! Kaka-pi says not to bother them but they're so cute!'_

_'I need tea.'_

_'Luna, the plant broke into Xanxus' stash. How do I ward it so it doesn't happen again? Mukuro says the plant needs Alcoholics Anonymous, but what is that?'_

_'Don't catch anything while traveling, or really do so and see me Luna-darling! 3- Shamal'_

_'Luna, what do you do with a King if you can't ransom him? Treating him like a drunken sailor is not applicable. Ethics are terrible things to have. I didn't have these problems before the EC.'_

_'This mirror thing works? Send me spices!'_

_'She's going to use them to murder the world. Please don't. Send pictures of UMAs instead. Where did you find these anyway? Also, puppies are teething.'_

_'Lulu, there's a sale on 3rd street that you might be interested in -Aria.'_

_'Donna Aria don't send messages like that! Gamma.'_

' _You've sent that to everyone Gamma -Aria.'_

_'You hit 'reply all' too! Gamma.'_

_'Oopsies! Aria.'_

_'Lady Luna, Master Xanxus has locked himself in his workshop. He's been in there for a full day. I'm unsure of why.'_

_'Squalo! Happy Birthday!'_

* * *

"Squalo you have a message from Dino." Luna says as she scrolls through her messages. "Dino sent the message to everyone on the mirror network."

"What's it say?"

"Happy birthday. There is a picture of a cake. It has sword candles on it."

"Sword candles." He deadpans.

"See, this is a claymore, this is a gladius, there's a katana... It's really quite interesting. Where do you think he got it from?"

"The Cavallone specialize in people and are willing to lend them out on contract or for favors. They've got experts in everything, so it's not really surprising."

"Candle making included?"

"It's not that odd. I mean, even with the reform you guys put the Vongola through, the Vongola still specializes in warfare. The Vongola had and still has the highest ratio of people with Dying Will Flames that are trained how to use it although I've never been sure on the actual numbers."

"Huh." Luna says. "Do you want to take a plane ride to Japan, fly on a carpet or ride a thestral?"

"Do you have a passport?"

"Nope."

"Thestral it is."

"You don't trust the carpet?"

"Where would we even get a carpet?"

"Persia, I believe. Or maybe India again. Their theories of chakras are really interesting, I'll have you know."

* * *

"Ow." Squalo complains. "I'm not used to horseback."

"At least we're in Japan now. Thestrals are fast, aren't they?"

"Voi! How fast can thestrals go anyway?"

"The like to cruise a little over a hundred miles per hour but they can go faster."

"That's what? A hundred sixty kilometers an hour?"

"Thereabouts."

"So where to next?"

"Do you have anyone you wish to see?"

"Not at this time of night."

"To Talbot then?"

"Shouldn't we call ahead for diplomatic purposes?"

"Oh." Luna says, as she realizes that they are on a diplomatic mission of sorts to an old, eccentric ringsmith. "We'll blow him away with our windswept model looks."

"I think you're getting your phrasing wrong."

"Quite possibly, but I don't particularly care. I have a plan, so trust me?"

"Alright."

* * *

Talbot's Japanese home is inhabited, by the ringmaker himself. He doesn't introduce himself, but then he doesn't have to. They land the thestrals in his back yard. He's sitting on his back porch.

"You smell like horses and carrion." He tells them.

"I thought we'd smell like the summer night air." Luna replies.

"So you're here about rings then?"

"We can't be here to borrow your shower and board for the night?"

"You'll still be here for the rings."

"Food actually." She corrects.

"My home is not a bed and breakfast."

"And we're not here about rings. We're here for information."

"Oh? That's a different game then. I don't have any." The old man tells them.

"Oh, then I suppose my friend that makes plants grow with his Flame is unlikely to ever get a ring that'll suit him any time soon. Such a pity that we'll have to go through trial and error for it."

"He has Forest Flames?" Talbot asks. Luna files away the name. "And you're Vongola."

"I suppose the rings gave that away." Luna dreamily responds.

"Yet, your friend -not the Rain there- has Forest Flames. I suppose there's quite a story in there."

"Why, yes, there is. However, you're not the person we're seeking. This is nothing more than seeing if you're alive. We can pay for lodgings for the night though."

"Just let me see your rings first, before I decide anything."

Luna holds out her hand and Squalo did the same.

"Utterly ruthless, and compassionate too. Highly intelligent, original and non-conformist. Deep sadness and understanding." Talbot proclaims. "You pass. Go on, take a shower."

"I'll wait for a moment."

"Restless, impatient and prideful. Sharp enough to cut yourself on, highly decisive and loyal. A perfectionist and a romantic in one. I suppose you'll do."

"What the hell old man?"

"The rings speak to me, loudmouth." Talbot tells the swordsman.

"Now if only directions to the bathroom would do the same, unless you want me to poke around?" Luna asks.

"It's the second room on the left. Take the guest room. It's the last room on the left."

* * *

Luna claims the first shower, and Squalo claims the bathroom shortly thereafter.

"Exactly what's going on here?" Squalo asks in the quietest volume that Luna has heard from him.

"Just watch and see."

"Alright. Boss trusts you, so I'll do the same."

* * *

Luna's not much of a diplomat and it's obvious that she isn't.

What she is, is a ruthlessly cunning woman who engineered the fracturing of a man and his empire while she petted his hair in her bed.

Trying to coerce the old codger into their Vongola with bribes, promises and flattery won't do.

They'll have to make him want to come back.

Things lost have a way of coming back to us, if not always in the manner we expect.

Luna's never been a conformist.

* * *

In the morning after breakfast -made by Squalo- the swordsman is on a phone talking to a swordsman friend he made several years ago.

Luna is actually surprised that Squalo remembers the number, more so that the number is still in service to the same person all these possible years later.

"So what's your plan today lady?"

"Well," Luna says as she washes the breakfast dishes, "I have plans of seeing if we can track down this one guy down. He really likes ramen, so we'll have to investigate ramen shops as we have a lunch date but I've forgotten where. I have an idea to propose to him about the half of the Tri-ni-Sette he manages."

"Oh, something about those pitiful children?"

"Yes, but we need to find him first. I need to make a call and then we can go find lunch. Sound good?"

* * *

"Hello Gamma. Can I speak to Aria?" Luna asks on the mirror after having Squalo call up several ramen shops asking about a frequent customer; she didn't expect that it would work but the effort had to be made.

"Gamma!" An excited voice calls. "Bring it here!"

Aria's image then appears on the mirror.

"Congratulations." Luna tells Aria.

"Why, thank you Luna. Your dinner date will be at a ramen stand named Rakuraku-ken in Namimori. If you have curious company you might even be able to solve his problems. I think you've already told him how once, but I think he didn't listen so well."

"Oh, that's wonderful news then. He'll be so happy if we can manage that."

"Almost as happy as I! I could spend more time with my family! Ciao Lulu!"

Squalo looks over as he had shamelessly eavesdropped with Talbot. The anti-eavesdropping function can be toggled on and off; Luna had it off for a reason.

"Congratulations?"

"Aria's expecting."

"Isn't that pedophilia?" Squalo asks.

"Aria's older than you, so that classifies as 'lolicon' I think."

"Fucking creepy, is what it is." Squalo gives his opinion.

* * *

They take the train to Namimori. Squalo does not want to ride a thestral for a long while yet and makes his opinion of that option known.

Namimori from what can be seen from the cracked train window looks peaceful. Compared to the rest of the world and even parts of Japan, the place looks almost idyllic.

"Curious and curiouser." Luna comments as she exits the train with Talbot and Squalo following.

"When did you become Alice?" Squalo mutters.

* * *

"Hello there," Luna says as she drops into a seat at the ramen stand. "I believe I have a workable solution for your problem. One miso please."

"You do?" Kawahira asks.

"Oh, it's quite rough but it can be refined. I even have someone to consult about the process, although the method to power it can be further refined, as it works in theory. It just isn't all that efficient yet."

"And you have evidence?"

"Yes, that I do. It's not much, but a start. Now how does that go? Itadakimasu."

The ramen was good.

* * *

"So this is your lunch date? Voi. He looks flaky."

"Squalo," Luna says in a conversational tone. "Even though he looks human, judging him by human standards is about as wrong as using shark standards for you."

Squalo as sharp as he is and maybe due to getting used to Luna understands. "So completely non-human then. He doesn't look it and in fact I can't pick up any aura at all. So what are you?"

"An Earthling, born and bred." Kawahira replies with a smile.

"So we're here to talk about circumventing that dreadful system right?" Talbot asked.

"Yes, we are. Aria informed me that such flames continually have to be lit, which of course causes immense stress on human hosts due to how powerful it has to be. I've discovered that when Flames are accelerated they'll actually propagate themselves. I've done that within my mirrors before, but I'm unaware of the exact measurements required for such items and so decided to let two experts meet and exchange details."

"And you believe this will be successful?"

"Aria of the Giglio Nero is looking forward to being a mother far too much to be overly worried about the future she sees. So she either can't see it, or she sees success. Which reminds me," Luna adds, as she took a mirror out. "When you have this figured out, call the Vongola on the mirror. Just say my name. It's Luna. I suspect that the Vongola and its allies will be needed to at least provide Flames for the start-up."

"It's a good idea, but the start-up cost would be enormous -that wouldn't change in either method- but magic often warps within decades." Talbot informs them. "There's no way to get this to work as you wish it to for longer than a century."

"That is true, but I did tell Kawahira something some time ago. What was it exactly? Chances are that working together with others instead of lying to them for the Greater Good of the World will eventually find a way. Maybe you'll even make peace with those you've betrayed and all their ghosts haunting you."

"You did say that, and I thought you terrible even for a human as I considered your words." Kawahira remarks, affixing his glasses.

"Oh, I am a terrible person with terrible intentions." She tells them, somehow surprising her audience with her frankness. "Somehow I and others like me manage to do a lot of good as a side-effect instead of accidentally screwing up the world like people with good intentions do." She smiles then. "No one ever says what the road to Heaven is made of, but one to a brighter future is in our reach should we make the effort to wrest it our way. Isn't that terrible of us to take it for ourselves?"

Talbot is the first one to laugh, but Luna contents herself with the idea of Squalo leaning against the wall while trying to contain his mirth and making Kawahira chuckle.

* * *

"Oi, terrible lady." Talbot calls. "Where are you two going?"

Squalo answers. "We've got Primo's Impossible Quest to finish up. We weren't kidding when we said we were mostly checking in to see if you were alive and to fish for information, so sending information on those Forest Flames as you called 'em would be good. If you don't, we'll figure it out. We do have a ringsmith even if he's not on your level."

"The Vongola Sky ring is still Primo's, so it's his to do with as he wishes. It's why the Vongola Rings are Primo's heirlooms, not the previous generation's rings." Luna adds, even if the information isn't new to their crowd. It is however, required for framing their conversation. "So the ring is currently on loan to Xanxus with conditions. First and foremost was a search for those with Vongola blood or proof of extinction. We've managed the former for most of the other Bosses, so only Primo's kin that stayed in Japan are left. There might be a few we've missed though."

"As Boss doesn't necessarily want to stay in charge of the Vongola, he needs to find someone who will be in charge of it that the ring will accept. That means finding a Sky with Vongola blood to put the ring and preferably this version of the Vongola on, although I'm not sure why there's a bloodline requirement." Squalo continues for Luna. "Bloodlines are considered important, but best to have someone competent over an idiot I think."

"That bloodline lock was a later addition to the Vongola Rings." Talbot informs them. "You probably know about the half-rings used in the Ring Battles between heirs of the Vongola. To keep the division steady, year after year there had to be a limit installed on how high the output could be on the rings, even when they were combined together. Otherwise the ring would break."

"So that was Primo's doing? I mean, that would lead to more possible rejections as time goes by because they're not related enough to Primo. We know that much now thanks to genetics." Luna said. "It does explain why the Seventh married Quinto's daughter, beyond her having stronger Sky Flames."

"However having the bloodline requirement would prevent any usurper from trying to wrest the Vongola away through a coup or blatant outside takeover. Prevents in-fighting in a sense, because Skies are rare and are needed to be the Boss of the Vongola." Squalo says, before continuing on. "It works, right up until you have a selection of candidates, who quarrel with each other. Luna's research minions have created Vongola history cliff notes so there's evidence of quite a bit of that."

"Did I approve of that? I think I remember doing so, but I can't say for certain."

"So as the Vongola Ring is part of the tri-ni-sette, was that part ever limited?" Squalo asks, for thoroughness.

"Not in the least, because of how the Vongola Rings were set up when I split them. One section acted as a storage and another channeled Flames for use so the tri-ni-sette would be supported even if the rings had to be in storage for a few years. It was a compromise of sorts. The output of the Vongola Rings could only reach about two-thirds of their potential, but any extra output instead of shattering the ring went straight to storage or the tri-ni-sette system." Talbot explains.

"So Xanxus isn't going to yell at Primo for that." Luna surmises.

"Eh, he still might. I mean the bloodline lock has its benefits but Skies are rare enough that having a non-related Sky in the Vongola is a ridiculous situation, since the only way no one would know was for certain would be if the Sky was orphaned or abandoned young enough to not know their parents or was kidnapped, got lost or something." Squalo explains. "Even so, the kid would have to be seriously qualified for the position to be found in favor of the position because at best the kid's a bastard or the worst is actually being adopted."

Squalo grimaces before he continues. "Even if the kid happened due to a one-night stand and the mother didn't want it, most people do keep track of who they sleep with nowadays if only because they know they should due to awareness of STDs so there's that and the common courtesy to leave a letter of something if they're going to abandon a kid somewhere. Primo's only allowing Xanxus to use the ring for some reason or another, so that lock will have to be changed if we can't find an heir that's willing to take up the job and is a Sky. Plus Mukuro's got his ethics thing, so unless we want to be short a Mist we can't just kidnap the unlucky guy or gal."

"Well, there's the one Lightning lady that we suspect is related to the Fifth through one of his sons. She's around our age." Luna adds. "We'll have to check."

"Some sort of arranged marriage then? Don't see Boss as that type, really don't and she's a widow besides. Plus consent is very important."

"So we either find success or a lovely mess. Let's go see if Sawada Iemitsu had more than a house here in Namimori, otherwise we're going to be in for a longer search."

"Joy." Squalo says as they walk off, leaving Kawahira and Talbot to work out a way to replace the Acrobaleno system.

* * *

The idea was simple. It really was.

Making them fix it however was so very cruel and terrible.

A being that had sacrificed untold numbers of people he disliked to the world for the world's sake being made to work with those he had wronged for the good of the world...

Or he'd have to trick humans to turn into Acrobaleno despite knowing there was a very much viable alternative if he'd just ask for help.

It really was terrible of her.

* * *

Sawada Iemitsu's home in Namimori had clearly been taken over by someone else and their family. Maybe sold after he died or repossessed if he wasn't able to send money to pay for it.

"Not exactly where I'd picture a leader of the CEDEF to live."

"It's a nice neighborhood. Namimori's stayed peaceful despite everything, it looks like."

"Voi." Squalo called softly. "That's my take on it too. Sawada Iemitsu had something he kept over here. A wife, a mistress or something."

"Iemitsu was a Sky. So if there was..."

"It's the only lead we have so far. Now we just gotta follow it."

Luna nodded. "Exactly so. The home and the family within it is a dead end."

* * *

A couple of days visiting cemeteries and a few nights of sneakily investigating local records -they hadn't gotten around to hospital records yet- has informed both Squalo and Luna that Sawada is a disgustingly common last name.

Not to mention, avoiding the local powers who do patrol is not exactly easy. Being tourists is a simple enough role to fall into. They've had a lot of practice at it. Namimori however is a small town. They will get noticed eventually.

"Investigations are clearly not my area." Squalo says impatiently. "But if someone spirited away Iemitsu's love interest then we're sunk. No wonder you say hope is a demon."

"Wishing for a solution isn't wise either; wishes have consequences." Luna utters. "Bringing those consequences back to the Vongola is not something we want to deal with."

Then they both hear laughter. "Nufufufu. Vongola you say?"

"Mukuro?" Luna asks.

"Elena?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger. I decided to split this chapter here. This chapter is over 19k words so splitting was wise. I don't want to see UL for a month now, so don't expect any updates before then.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'd by Umei no Mai

"No, you're not Mukuro." Luna corrects herself.

"And you're not Elena." The not-Mukuro says.

"My name is Luna." She says, introducing herself to the person who was not Mukuro despite all the similarities they shared; she didn't require his name to notice that or that he required much more support than his host could give him. He was very like Mukuro, their appearances were similar as were their mannerisms, but that didn't make them the same. "Daughter of Xenophilus and Pandora."

"Squalo Superbi." Squalo adds, reaching for his sword hidden under a minor illusion and a notice-me-not. She doesn't think Squalo's going to attack, but Squalo _recognizes_ this person and thinks _threat._

"My name is Daemon Spade."

The name's familiar, she knows of this person in a different way that Squalo. She knows of him from off-hand mentions in dinner discussions. From her and Xanxus' collaboration on the research involved in Primo's Impossible Quest. Squalo thinks _threat_ , Luna knows _danger_.

"And your host, Mister Spade?" She prompts, seeing someone under all the Mist. Small enough to be a child, but she can't see more than that.

"Her name is Nagi." With that said, Daemon takes a seat at their table in the quaint little cafe. He even orders something to eat, although Squalo's less than welcoming expression sends the server scurrying away like a mouse soon after and before Luna could do more than order tea. Being foreigners likely isn't helping, but Luna is used to strange looks sent her way. They're actually rather familiar and oddly reassuring. She is still herself. They're not looking at her with pity and thinking _broken_ , poor _Loony_ Loony Lovegood.

The tension is thick enough between the swordsman and ghost to be mistaken for a war-room meeting, but there's less disguised fear and ego-posturing between them. In fact it's the lack of posturing and threats that makes it be so much more serious. There's no menacing undercurrent... yet.

"Should you really behave like that, dear Squalo?" She asks in English, before switching to Italian; less chance of people knowing the language in Japan after all. English was the language of business and would probably remain such for a time despite the collapse of the muggle global economy, so many had at least studied English in school, even if they had forgotten it later. "Signor Spade could prove helpful to our quest."

And the illusion stiffens, practically hesitates, before the action is smoothed out into something more natural.

That sort of thing is never a good sign. It's a sign of pain.

(Anger is not not a primary emotion. It is a response to other emotions. A distraction.

Daemon Spade has wounds and is hiding them.)

* * *

Healing is never a pretty process.

Scars leave a mark.

Some wounds however do not close, they ache and ache and cannot be eased at all; people just learn to live with them.

Bleeding.

* * *

Luna has no idea what she's said that caused the reaction, but hopefully it wasn't the Italian that did it. Unfortunately while she can speak Japanese, she prefers not to. Bad memories of the language and not enough good ones to outweigh all the bad.

"You see, Signor Spade, we currently have a situation in which you could be of assistance. I don't think you have want of anything material that could be offered by us, therefore we have to beg your conscience for assistance, should you wish to offer it."

Primo and Secondo's, no, this is purely Primo's Mist Guardian facing them looking wild and distraught deep in his soul, and then enraged before it's all hidden behind deliberate calmness. Secondo's Mist appears, a calm mask to the mindless grief that had bodies floating in the sea for the birds and aquatic creatures to pick clean.

(Oh, Luna realizes, it's loss that caused that pain. She feels a momentary regret over not looking deeper into the Vongola's early history herself. She has no idea what could cause this other than the name of 'Elena.')

Squalo's letting her take the lead in negotiations. She hadn't charmed Talbot, but his curiosity which may save the world. Daemon, here she has less to work with other than she looks like someone he knew, he is a ghost of a different sort than the kind that inhabited Hogwarts and that he is tragically broken, knows it and did a terrible job of repairing himself.

Luna could break him more, especially if she knew him better like she did Byakuran but Daemon is more of a mystery. A single misstep may bring the wrath of Secondo's Mist down on them and...

This may be a disaster. It will at least be a beautiful one. If one found blood to be beautiful.

("Not all blood is beautiful, Loony Loony Lovegood." Bellatrix had crooned at her once upon a prison. "Some of it is quite filthy and full of mud. Best to return those mudbloods and their filthy blood to the earth by slaughtering them like the filthy beasts that they are!")

* * *

The problem with emotional hemorrhaging is that unlike blood, there is no clotting mechanism.

People bleed and bleed until they're too tired to stay standing...

... and then they bleed some more in exhaustion.

The blood gets everywhere, stains the world a brilliant scarlet and a dull flaking rust.

People drown in blood.

Daemon lives a world submerged in the crimson shade only blood has.

* * *

"And if I tell you that my conscience is dead? That it is gone with my body? With society as it is currently only strength matters. Nothing else." Secondo's Mist replies with a telling lack of dramatic gestures. All that self-control is being spent on restraint and holding himself together instead of creating a more natural front.

He's lying. Poorly. Trying to convince himself as much as her. He's failing at the first step of persuading other people. He lacks true sincerity, true belief and he cannot convince himself, much less her otherwise.

"I'd express my condolences and move on, believing that strength should be put to use for something." She looks him directly in his eyes.

His are so much like Mukuro's, but more lost and clinging to a dangling thread of sanity as though it were nothing more than madness to leave it, even though he knows it is madness to stay. A single thread is no anchor to sanity and Luna is far more adept than she likes to admit at navigating seas of madness. She's more used to severing anchors now and war is only part of the reason why.

(Those threads binding her to sanity were torturous chains when in prison. Happy memories and happy thoughts of what-could-have-been were only good for dreams. And dreams, like memories of halcyon days of summer with her father, would only have worked against her.

To wear down an empire with sand, you need to be harder and more abrasive and so so sharp.)

She continues dreamily but so serious: "To protect something matters more now because society is the way it is; people are terrible and there are always the three beats of war, peace and revolution and no-one is sure where we currently are. Are we at war? If not, did we lose before we even noticed? Some are concerned about who won, but others with the aftermath of war. Are we at peace? There may be no one telling us to live one way or another now but what about tomorrow? Are we in the thrall of revolution? Rioting angrily at the complacency that allowed false peace to take over the world before it fell to an unseen war? Will this make a change in the system, a permanent one? Those changes frequently require a foundation of blood and bones and lives so who pays the price? Does anyone even care? The world as a whole doesn't know all of it, isn't sure of anything and killing Byakuran was much like opening that which was entrusted to Pandora. All that madness and genius scattered to the winds and infecting the world with his vision, dreams, ambition and insanity. That I do know."

(Luna is sharp, so sharp and strong, she knows. She's endured, she's overcome and she's still so bright.)

Then with firm finality, she utters, "I also know this. I do not regret killing Byakuran and giving the world its choice. With Byakuran as he was, there was no other future than the death of the world. Ten years, if that. I may have done nothing but delay that, possibly even causing greater casualties over time. But I do not regret it."

(Luna is a diamond, polished by time and disaster.

There is no reason for something sharp to not be brilliant.)

* * *

She doesn't mention the possibility of him helping her on Primo's Impossible Quest because Secondo's Mist bore a grudge towards the founder of the Vongola; she knows better than that. It is why the Mist became Secondo's before he died to rest uneasily in death; there is nothing but violent passion and a delirious drive for a cause that provokes such. That is what caused this ghost to be and that is not part of the Vongola she wants. That sort of Vongola would not last.

That Vongola is years dead already.

Being reduced to appealing to the ghost's better nature, long buried in blood and grave dirt is not appealing but... help would be appreciated in this time of lawlessness and chaos. Daemon Spade joined the Vongola for a reason, even if she didn't know it. The possible connection to this Elena she so resembles may provide a clue but she'd rather not provoke a vengeful ghost to murder her when she still has Primo's Impossible Quest to complete.

She also does not mention Kawahira or the agony of his choice for Acrobaleno or a workaround with those he had already cursed and left for dead; people, especially those determined to, can survive impossible odds be it out of love or hatred. It's only whispers of hope but they grow. Daemon Spade doesn't need to know of that. That hope is not his hope to reach for.

Much like the world doesn't need to know that she did Byakuran a favour by killing him. He was brilliant enough to know where his madness would lead, how broken it had already made him and how reduced it would eventually lead him to become. His thanks and gratitude echoes in her memory and dreams but she does not regret her actions.

("Thank you," she still hears in her ears, a repetitive refrain in her darkest dreams.)

She doesn't regret the consequences either. There's no eagle eating her liver, but like Prometheus she has a constant reminder and endures the pain of her choices.

("Thank you," he says. Luna remembers that more than the fire he was consumed by.)

She's not a god and distressingly mortal for all she had once possessed all the Hallows but she doesn't expect a rescue from a mythical hero.

Those chains don't hold her and she's never let them. She's a child of the underworld now but before then it was moonlight and magic; she has not forgotten that and mortal chains are even less binding than magical ones.

Even magical ones shrouded in myth and called holy.

* * *

"That said, we as people require our basic needs met in order to survive, but it takes more strength to live with all the weaknesses and double-edges true living requires; compassion, charity, kindness, healing, education in the humanities for dreams, hopes, words, music, even songs and philosophy. They make a life worth living, worth having, like friendship and poetry you see. People need to see that, hear that and understand that. I'm advocating for that. That's what I want to protect. That's my idea, my hope and my dream. I'll protect that."

Luna lays her dreams -not yet voiced to her friends, to her comrades, to her allies and barely hinted at previously- bare. Xanxus had an idea and Neville understood without having to be told because he had managed something similar with Haven. Haven was a sanctuary, a magical one, just not what her dream was.

Her dream was something else, smaller and more personal yet on a scale greater than Haven.

"Therefore that strength should be used to protect that. I'm not naive enough to say it should be used to protect the weak; everyone is weak at some point and they should learn from it. To pick themselves up, to pick others up or other useful lessons and sometimes they learn to be kind instead of learning helplessness. It is when the protectors can't protect themselves that they either fall apart or turn into monsters and people are terrible about gratitude. Gratitude turns into expectation and people fall prey to their own beliefs and shatter when attacked from both enemies and those they were supposed to protect."

* * *

That's what happened to the Vongola after all. The strongest? They were proven weak. The most well-connected? They were isolated in the paranoia of the strongest mafia famiglia. The vaunted hyper-intuition? Fooled because it can only work so well with a closed mind, narrow vision and a haze of misinformation.

The Vongola had been blind, deaf and dumb to miss the rise of the Millefiore. A failure to adapt, a failure to thrive, a failure to survive much less exist based solely on strength. Power alone is never enough.

They did not think it would happen, couldn't conceive of it, wrapped in confidence in the superiority of their ancestors' work and efforts. It was nothing more than an illusion born of complacency and the inability to think or believe in the 'impossible.'

Luna wants nothing more than thinkers, non-conformists, rebels and those who eschew tradition. Artists, composers, dreamers and philosophers that will be radicals, liberals and very fierce protectors of their work, livelihood and community. She wants to cultivate kindness and the ability to believe, to empathize with others in her people.

They won't always see the same things or hear them or always understand them... but they won't ignore what's there either, locking it out because it doesn't belong with what they want to believe in.

Luna wants a proper CEDEF; she simply has to make it first and she will after Primo's Impossible Quest is finished in failure or success. Months of effort, of traveling and convince and research have gone into Primo's Impossible Quest and for her own goals.

She already has people, because while Primo's Impossible Quest is being handled, there's no reason to not run her own errands alongside Squalo's, right? They both need people but of far differing temperaments and skills.

That's the most efficient way to get all of those plans realized since even if they find Primo's heir, there would still be a transition period and Luna is very adept at misdirection and sneaking sand past watching eyes; this time however she'd be building a castle instead of ruining the workings of an empire.

(Sand she remembers is used in building -for bricks, for glass, for mortar and compressed by time and heat and pressure into into stone.

Sand and time is all she needs to build an empire. One that would stand together, instead of falling apart and back into the dust of naive dreams.)

* * *

(When had the CEDEF become subservient to the Vongola?

Ricardo had written about Alaude and Alaude's successor who had no trouble telling Secondo when he was being less than wise or outright careless. There are hints about Primo's reign here and there, so Xanxus knew the most about what was left in the archives. Some of which had been shared, others discussed but all examined with the greatest of scrutiny; a dragon's insight was formidable but can only do so much when so much information was missing.)

The number one suspect for secreting away information is sitting at the table with her and Squalo. He'd have reason to and all the others involved were long dead.

(But when had the CEDEF become subservient to the Vongola? When the CEDEF obeyed instead of watched? When the CEDEF heard orders instead of rumors?

Luna knows and she's not happy about it.

When the Vongola learned to be arrogant and unthinking about its power, the CEDEF learned to say 'yes.' The worst sort of hypocrisy, the worst kind of betrayal and a learned helplessness from the overwhelming strength of the Vongola.

Power is not all that is needed to rule.)

All she needs to know is if Primo's bloodline still exists and if the inheritor of it is a Sky. If not, her involvement in Primo's Impossible Quest is over.

(Primo's the one that wants the Vongola Ring returned to his bloodline; this means the Vongola's responsibilities, the good works and mistakes are also returning to his direct bloodline.

Primo may have not thought everything through, since he's volunteered his relatives and his possible descendants for war, unceasing work and the responsibility of the Vongola in such an uncertain time. It's an immense amount of work that could crush a man; Primo is potentially volunteering an untrained and unprepared child should one have been born to Iemitsu.

Luna's done the math; Primo hasn't.)

* * *

Luna can tell she's hit on what happened to Daemon in many ways; Giotto the idealist, the dreamer, the protector of the physical and basks in love and guilt.

A idiot without wisdom, no matter his intelligence or resolve.

Luna hadn't been sure on why Giotto chose some of the things he did for a mafia famiglia but she can see it now. The illusion of his majesty, the Great Sky has been shattered. See how intelligence was mistaken for wisdom and foresight. See how mistakes were forgotten and forgiven by history.

See how fallible and mortal he was, for all the reverence history has for him.

When an idealist sees the monster he has created... one out of human nature no less, the idea is to defuse and scale back. Take back weapons, let people cool off in months after years of momentum has built towards the frenzy. It's an idiot's decision through and through.

And Daemon suffered for it.

How useful. How very terrible.

But now it's Daemon's move.

Will there be blood?

(Of course there will be. Daemon's world has been nothing but the feel of red blood, the taste of iron and copper on tongue and the smell of grief on the air for decades upon decades.

Daemon grieves. He bleeds.

He's weak.)

* * *

Daemon bleeds but only her eyes can see it.

It is not an illusion but a metaphor so apt that it should be reality. That it is reality.

It's a mess and not a scar in sight.

Scars could be hidden. Blood bleeds through anything that's not a scar when given time to flow and a wound to flow out of.

Blood will continue to flow unless stemmed, drawing other things out with it.

Sanity drips away into an ocean of blood.

Luna is very adept at sailing the seas of madness.

Luna has no charts, no intimate knowledge of this sea of utter lunacy -her decision is that by all the rationale that supposedly frames sense- but she'll sail it regardless.

(Ginny's gift of courage is still hers.)

* * *

"Oh, is that what you wish to protect? Little girl dreams of utopia within the darkness of the underworld? Such a riot, listen to my laughter -the idea's not funny. Hearing allusions of love, dreams and warmth within that blackness. That's not possible. It's ridiculous to even dream of it. Giotto's Vongola was weak, the rest of the Vongola died with that simpering old man and now you're hoping to recruit me?"

Daemon is an impressive orator, of that there is no doubt, much like his confidence in his worth is not in doubt either. He's also a liar and she's going to catch him with his own and webs woven with the truth. He is or was a product of the nobility dissatisfied with the status quo. An idealist in his own right.

That is what drove him to the Vongola, she realized. Dissatisfaction with society, the world and seeking the means to change it through some grand vision. He loved and trusted Primo with that much, so for Elena to have caused deeper wounds...

Luna isn't sure if Elena played a part in the establishment of the Vongola, but to love a person so much... that's a wonderful sort of madness.

Daemon may have been a little mad to begin with. Why else would he rebel against those who held power in those times, the nobility when he was part of it? It would be easy, so much easier to not...

Now however, he's still that person but so much more and so much less.

Luna listens, pays attention and thinks. Those who will not think are bigots, those who cannot are fools and those dare not are slaves. She only listens to public opinion for long enough to avoid starvation and to evade prison; simple enough really. Thoughts become actions and her actions need to be well-reasoned.

(Gift of courage or not, Luna is a Ravenclaw. Wit beyond measure did not die with Hogwarts. Like Gryffindor Courage did not die with Ginny. Those live with her.)

Thinking is so difficult for some and others just don't think that way. She's sitting next to the latter.

* * *

Squalo is sitting. Still and silent. A pale statue with an inner fire and passion that burns and burns. It simmers even now, in the tightness of his grip on his blade and the wariness in his eyes.

How impressive it was to find a passion and make a living out of it and then find another when he wasn't looking for it. How impressively loyal he is to his new cause, to Xanxus now that they've met. How despite the distance between them, they're still one entity in a way no one else could come close to.

Luna's still not sure if they've ever had a proper conversation about anything other than work-related topics. Xanxus is sparse with his words after all but Squalo doesn't seem to need them to understand what is wanted or needed.

Squalo's very lucky to find that. To be able to hear that when so many are deaf to the important things.

And now he's seeing what he could become should he lose all purpose but an ideal to strive for.

That wariness in his eyes is well disguised terror.

Disgust and empathy make the terror into wariness; a very well deserved one.

(Broken mirrors are really the best for seeing yourself in.)

* * *

"It seems that you misunderstand." She tells him. "For a Mist of your calibre, you seem to harbor more delusions than illusions."

The insult is calculated. Not enough to enrage him, so much as to swing his mind around to listen instead of dangling closer to madness.

"I know that the Underworld such as it is, is a dark and bloody place where dealing death is more valuable than living. I know fighting in a war for survival, I know of being a general for rebels, I know of being a prisoner of war. Once as a hostage, again as a sacrifice. I know of loss. First my mother, then my father and the majority of my friends including someone who was so noble to the point of stupidity because all he had left to cling to was an idea of who he was supposed to be and he was too broken to do more than become it despite his attempts otherwise, as people wouldn't let him be anything but that."

Harry Potter was a lonely broken child.

The boy-who-live was such a figure of noble suffering and chivalry.

He never had a choice or a chance.

Never just Harry Potter, student of Hogwarts.

Always something else and never himself.

Harry Potter, she remembers calling him, never the-boy-who-lived or the Chosen One.

"Therefore while survival is possible, I find just mere survival distasteful. You can't trust survivors until you know what they did to survive. Trusting those who have the strength to live on the other hand?" She finds a smile creeping up on her face. "Oh, it's difficult. It takes time, effort, understanding and more but the benefits of doing such means the difference between survival and living. That's the sort of strength I have and want at my side."

(Physical strength crumbles with age and is so fleeting. Most people never have to know how strong they are emotionally.

Kindness and love are rare and precious; the strength to reach out could effect just one person or it could effect hundreds or millions.

"Thank you," she hears again.

_It was a kindness to end him_.)

She takes a breath and stares. "The next is thinking that I want to recruit you. You're painted a traitor to the Vongola and no one is ever clear on why. I don't mind that stigma of traitor, as I bear it myself concerning the Millefiore for all that I was only ever their enemy, then prisoner and then destroyer. It is clear that you've been surviving but you haven't been living. As I've said, I don't want the sort of strength that you have, so I'm not recruiting you."

(Skilled and experienced, more than any other possible Mist, but all of that is useless if you can't trust the person with such skills. She wants to though, but she can't.

He's likely crazier and more lost than she is.

It would be kind of her to reach out more, but it is worthless effort if no one ever reaches back.

A pointless cause is a waste of resources. A misguided cause is an even larger waste.)

"Then whatever are you bothering me for?" Daemon says, and Luna doesn't correct him by saying that he could have left instead of introducing himself.

"I was going to ask if you knew if Giotto's bloodline was dead or not." Luna raises an eyebrow and takes another breath, waiting for his reply. Daemon has little reason to be in Japan otherwise. Why haunt Japan, a place he had never set foot in while alive?

"That's all?"

"Well, if you bear a grudge against Giotto but still care for the Vongola, then it's obvious that you at least keep track of his descendants. I assume that Nagi is yours, or of some relative."

"Then why the discussion previously?" Daemon says but doesn't confirm or deny.

"Would you answer me otherwise without it?" She demurs, knowing that she's won a victory even without seeing the triumph in her eyes.

"No, I wouldn't have." Daemon admits, eyes flicking back at her and reassessing. "Why are you asking?"

* * *

A different server, one with stronger nerves brings the tea and cake. Luna takes the tea and eyes the cake.

A simple chocolate one, but still tailored for his host instead of him; she doubts the popularity of chocolate during his time. That choice, it's very telling compared to Squalo's lack, and her choice of tea.

A considerate madman is much more rational that a mad god in all his brilliance.

She can work with madmen, because only the mad are willing to stand against, fight and kill a mad god.

("Thank you," he had said once upon a death.

Luna smiles, remembers how they had stayed with each other even after Byakuran was dead.

Byakuran's death is the foundation of friendship that this new Vongola was built on.

Not a bloodless revolution but it was only one man compared to the rest of the world that Byakuran planned to sacrifice to truly become a true mad god.)

* * *

Luna knows that Daemon is quite mad. He has threads of sanity tangling together to form a rope dangling above an ocean of madness.

An ocean of blood he has bled and shed.

Tossing him another rope wouldn't be too hard. Maybe one that wouldn't fray into strings when held so frantically.

And she might reel in an invaluable source of information, Nagi and a potential heir for Primo.

Distasteful as forcing a child into that position would be. Primo's Impossible Quest came with conditions on time and they can use that time wisely. They have, as recruiting has gone well enough.

* * *

"I assume you have some familiarity with the Tri-Ni-Sette?" She asked.

"Considering I wore part of it until my death, yes." Daemon admitted with a wry twist to his lips. She's willing to bet he learned more of it after his death.

"Then you know of the Vongola's bloodline requirement. The current holder doesn't have the bloodline so the ring is practically worthless to him. Giotto is letting him use it on the condition that he searches for and finds a proper Vongola heir should one exist to be found. So this is Giotto's demand that we're obeying because the Tri-Ni-Sette needs all the support it can get thanks to Byakuran's efforts in ending the Arcobaleno, gaining control over the entire Tri-Ni-Sette and rewriting the world according to his whims and madness. The Administrator of the Acrobaleno has already started to move to restore balance to the world."

Although his choice on whether it would be a restoration of the previous system or the birth of a new one was down to him and Talbot.

(The idea of a new option becoming part of reality is causing him such hesitation, especially after the death of so many people who were strong in Flames. The Millefiore often left the choice between assimilation and annihilation and not everyone was capable of bowing their head. Too wilful. Too hard and set to bend.

Does he wait in vain hope? Does the world crumble while he does? Does he act without permission? Will doing so prevent strong Flames being passed onto their descendants otherwise?  


He needs the strength of those Flames; he needs them to continue on, for those precious bloodlines to thrive. To continue his ritual of sacrifice.

It is always a choice between blood and greed.

Can he afford this? Can he afford not to?

Blood isn't everything, she knows, but blood is part of everyone.

This new doubt, this new hope, that same old blood calling for a continuation so he can ensure the life of the world by doing something he doesn't wish to do.

Doubt and Hope are Pandora's demons of choice and so they are Luna's.

She set them free.)

"We've found people of the bloodline but none were the right type for that ring. There's also an issue of genetics to consider in the long-run, along with potential inbreeding to be wary of you see." She said. "Talbot isn't exactly forthcoming with details so he may or may not know for certain how it works. It is an issue however. Dilution of the blood over generations and the solution to that are both terrible in the long run."

Dilution means the Vongola blood, however that is determined by the ring, is not concentrated enough to register for the ring or lacks the ability to be registered as Vongola; and so whoever held it would be rejected unless Primo says otherwise. The solution to that would be selective breeding, skating towards inbreeding and all those inheritable defects that would accumulate because of that. It's not a feasible option, especially now that the bloodlines from Primo's more distant relatives aren't as numerous and those found lack Sky Flames in the first place.

Even if they 'fail' Primo's Impossible Quest and the ring is granted to Xanxus' bloodline there are issues. Mostly because Xanxus was far less human than he appeared to be and while Xanxus was stable and rational, there was no certainty that his children would be, especially if dragon instinct and the Vongola's Hyper-Intuition worked together in the worst way in the mingling in later generations; the idea of increasing 'compatibility' with the ring through selective breeding would be a sound one otherwise. It is however a beautiful disaster of an idea.

(A word of warning to all aspiring cross-breeders when breeding a wild source into a stable breed, she remembers reading once, it is only in the forth-generation removed from the wild source that the danger in handling such cross-bred offspring is comparable to the standard for the breed although it can be elevated due to a more 'wild' temperament. Selective breeding can then be used to benefit the rest of the stock for any number of cross-breeds or for your own needs if the first generation of offspring have a viable result.

Xanxus' great-grandfather wasn't human in the least.

Cross-breeding between such individuals in a blended bloodline can result in unwanted results in the offspring. It is for this reason that when hypogriffs have a winged horse as an offspring, the young foal is abandoned after birth or killed by nearby hypogriffs for food. When hypogriffs have a griffin offspring it is always said that the parents kill the young cub. For if they don't, the griffin kills its hypogriff siblings in the nest.

Dragons weren't even a social species, unlike griffins, hypogriffs or any sort of flying horse breed.)

It was a rather terrifyingly plausible idea though, one that any successive idiot might take into their heads, not knowing the madness they courted. While the Vongola lacks most of those that would be hung up on propriety at the moment, the differences in legitimacy between a bastard and a legal heir was immense. Xanxus was considered a bastard Vongola by many -if only due to having the Ring and Sky Flames unless they knew otherwise- although no one knew from which Vongola so no one really opposed his reign and reconstruction efforts in their desire to have a Vongola to rule the Underworld. Even so, Xanxus would be expected to marry and marry well; preferably another of Vongola blood of a suitable distance, leading back to that dragon-Vongola issue while forcing another. Mukuro also considered arranged marriages to be unethical without freely given consent of both parties, thus there would be more issues if his Ethics Committee survived his death and the generations after.

Considering that Xanxus is currently wading in a swamp of well-hidden grief, he is not in the best place to start to any romance or build the best basis for parenthood. He does remain the only Sky the Vongola has unless this lead is a winning one; she has plans to drain his swamp before disease breeds in it but for now, the grief can remain and he can wallow in it as he pleases.

"Plus he's not interested in keeping the Vongola. Oh, there's no doubt that he loves it and will do anything for it because he's built this version, but that doesn't mean he wishes to rule it when his talents as an assassin are better suited elsewhere, right Squalo?"

"Boss has Quality." Squalo said, the first thing he has said during this meeting. Aloud anyway.

"And that makes you what, little girl?" Daemon inquires.

"The External Advisor." She said with a smile. "Office location pending."

* * *

"External Advisor..." Deamon mutters, in wonder or astonishment, Luna's not sure.

It's a shock, she assumes. She looks delicate, she knows, like she's constantly dreaming while awake. Nothing like the strong solitary Alaude who founded the CEDEF, a far cry from the buff yes-man that once was Sawada Iemitsu. She's not even a man.

She's blonde though, so she's got that much in common with both of them.

"Yes, it is one of the duties of the External Advisor to approve of potential successors, or to nominate one." She quips.

Luna counts it as a win when she gets Daemon to truly laugh and not mockingly at her.

(A man has to be audacious to carve out their own way of living; a woman has to be twice as much.

As a woman who toppled an empire from her prison cell with naught but sand and a pair of madmen, she's more than enough for that.

A polished diamond shining bright in a world of darkness.)

* * *

There would be more to their discussion except a child in a dark school uniform stalks up to their table.

"Herbivores, what is your purpose in Namimori?" He asks in the native language.

Luna hears 'Hibari-sama' in the background. There's fear and awe and respect in the name, even if the child is maybe twelve. The whispers aren't very telling and she has a role to play.

"Investigators on behalf of the organization that Sawada Iemitsu worked for." Luna responds, ignoring the singing tension from Squalo and the amusement that both Daemon and host have. "There are," she forgets the exact word so improvises, "legal matters related to his death-papers and the execution thereof. He, the one with the silver hair, is my bodyguard during this period of unrest."

"Superbi Squalo is not unknown to Namimori," this 'Hibari-sama' replies. "Yamamoto Tsuyoshi informed me that you were back in Japan. I'll not have your loudness disturbing the peace of Namimori."

"Voi, not that big a problem," Squalo returns in flawless Japanese if slightly louder than his normal conversational tone. It is just loud enough to provoke the child into irritation but not into actual action. "Especially not for a national hero."

The 'national hero' remark seems to have irritated this Hibari-boy even more than Squalo's volume.

"Oh? Isn't he young for that?" Luna asks.

"Eh, during the time the Milliefiore were falling apart thanks to your efforts against Byakuran, he wrested control of Namimori away from them and then later was rewarded by the Japanese Emperor. Then he saved the Emperor and his family when a Millefiore remnant decided to kill the man, his family and retainers." Squalo falls back into English about half-way through. Then with a conspiratorial grin, he adds in Italian, "Ended up engaged to one of the Emperor's granddaughters or some other relative that's a couple of years older than he is as a reward. Couldn't refuse the honor."

"Stop your gossiping, Superbi Squalo." Hibari the hero commands, annoyed at his own lack of fluency. The English he seemed to be following; the Italian had him lost.

"Or what?" Squalo taunts.

"A man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife." Hibari quotes in English, accent thick. The line sounds familiar to Luna somehow but it makes Squalo pale.

Oh, so Squalo was in the thick of it. Possibly chasing down that particular Millefiore remnant on the quest for the Mare Rings. Which is how they know each other. Beyond whoever this Yamamoto Tsuyoshi is other than Squalo's friend and this Hibari's informant.

"Did you run away from your reward?" Luna nettles in English. "Isn't that rude?"

"He turned it down." Hibari responds instead, again in Japanese. "And was appallingly rude, even for a gajin. He still made a positive impression enough that his reward is waiting and left unclaimed."

Luna gets the impression that he thinks that Squalo is appalling rude still and should probably be punished for it. Having interrupted this cafe's business long enough she decides, "Maybe we should take this conversation to some place less open."

* * *

Daemon and his host follow them, although Luna has to cover for them to Hibari as a 'lead to the whereabouts of Sawada Iemitsu's relatives.'

They go to a sushi restaurant and the owner sends them to the private room in the back. One look at Squalo's annoyed face has a mention of some sort of fish dish and Squalo becomes a lot less willing to murder the sushi chef.

Food bribes are clearly vital to managing a Squalo Superbi and how is it that she's just now finding out about this? Too busy? Too much work? Lack of fish while traveling overland due to disrupted economies? Of course sharks need to eat fish and Squalo's more than a shark on two legs with a sword to serve as teeth. Squalo is Squalo and her friend and she feels that not knowing this much makes her a terrible friend.

They hadn't settled the bill at the cafe either, as minor as it would be -this Hibari would likely see it paid off afterwards.

The food bill for the sushi he's charging to the accounts the Emperor set up for Squalo -at least that's the implication that Luna picks up since Japanese is far from her best language. Maybe she should see about getting some of that money transferred to the Varia? Squalo owes her quite a lot for the restoration of the Varia's Headquarters. He has of course been protecting her as they travel, so she won't charge him too much.

Except they've also been eating off of her money, staying in places that accept money with her money and he's trusted her with all of that.

The latter is more precious than money, but she's still not going to let a bill that big slide. Material costs, turning the plumbing magical and adding wards.

The sushi's delivered and she asks Squalo about etiquette here. For all his lack of politeness he does know how to eat gracefully and without causing offense.

Luna can't say the same; she's better with the language than with chopsticks and that's a better way than saying beyond clumsy. She's the one at a disadvantage here, now.

Daemon still has the information she needs, Hibari is a complicating factor for his connections and Squalo has his own issues of political importance to deal with.

Disadvantaged is far less of a hindrance than prisoner. This room was a place of shadow, not the Underworld and only because no-one in the room wanted to deal with the complications of the Underworld at the moment.

It's a good meal, even if Luna's sure she's annoyed Hibari with her lack of grace.

(She's never been graceful, not in the way a lady is supposed to be. Too Loony.

She's a survivor, one who broke and killed a mad god that ruled the world.

"Thank you," the mad god says.

"No, thank you," she returns in the far-reaches of her mind.

Grace is a fragile thing and Luna for all that she appears to be is far from fragile.)

* * *

Discussions are tense and she lets Squalo take the lead with Hibari. That is after all, Squalo's problem and not hers. Same with the sushi-chef, a Yamamoto Tsuyoshi.

Who does recognize Daemon and asks after his son. Daemon is entrusted with his son? How? When? What occurrences merits that?

Luna lets her questions die for the moment, more curious about this new person who knows the ghost and his host. There's a time and place for questions, as Luna has long since learned; a time when your opinions are wanted and times when they're despised.

The mad god was nearly a year dead, but she hasn't forgotten Hogwarts either. She knows when and where to press the boundaries even against those drowning in madness. She suspects that all of her questions' answers involves the Millefiore, which makes her wonder why. Subverting enemies into pawns was something Byakuran once bragged and despaired of.

(More than one rope back to sanity, not that he seems to recognize the existence of them; Luna previously did not notice them either.

Maybe she doesn't have to offer a hand; he can take someone else's hands.

If he's willing to reach.)

* * *

Daemon seems annoyed at the sushi-chef's seeming obliviousness; Luna does not buy into the act. His eyes are too sharp and his hands too steady.

Maybe Daemon won't kill him for ruining whatever concessions he was hoping to wring out of the Vongola from her.

She lets the flow of conversation wash over her and savors her tea.

She's going to have to interrupt this pleasant little interlude of peace, for the Vongola, for Giotto's Impossible Quest and so Squalo can escape Japan.

Ah, a moment's more peace won't hurt.

* * *

"So this 'Tsuna-kun' you speak of is Sawada Iemitsu's son?" She asks eventually, which effectively kills any friendly mood.

Yamamoto Tsuyoshi has been pestering Daemon for news -apparently his son is in hiding with a number of others. Hiding might be the wrong word for it, for all that they're clearly living in seclusion.

Living on an island of the Vongola's allies who went into hiding and practically retired from the mafia ages ago... it sounds like he grew up in a peaceful part of the world. Protected by the ghost that has hated his ancestor.

(Daemon reached first, out of the madness he lives in. Nagi may be comfortable there, but she came after Tsuna. After the Vongola.

He may not have reached out for himself, but he reached out for the Vongola. For what it represented.)

"I've been charged to at least meet and assess his suitability for his inheritance. If he's unsuitable for any reason, it will be placed in a Trust for him or his descendants."

"The Vongola certainly has changed." Tsuyoshi says. "That's... lenient."

"I plan regardless on telling Giotto that his request cannot be granted at this time. Iemitsu's son is far too young, lacks training and more to the point lacks knowledge of the world if he's been raised in seclusion with these Shimon. I just need to confirm his lack of suitability."

"Too young?" Squalo asks.

"At best, he might be fourteen." Luna responds in English. "Probably younger by a few years, if he exists at all; assuming that Iemitsu Sawada bought the house the same year his son was born."

(More to the point, she remembers Byakuran mourning over the lack of this 'Tsuna.' Luna remembers what he's said about when Tsunayoshi was born. She knows that if Tsunayoshi exists, he will be younger than fourteen, has a plethora of favorite foods and more.

Favorite enemies are almost like friends if you're mad enough, she supposes.

But it all depends on Daemon on if this Tsuna-kun was the right person and if Daemon has spirited him away.)

Squalo grimaces. "Primo hasn't done the math?"

"He never was any good at it," Daemon absently confirms. "The Vongola would never have lasted a year without G's skills at math, as rudimentary and self-taught as those accounting skills were, before the Vongola had proper accountants. Ricardo at least had a head for numbers."

Nagi giggles and the elegant image that Daemon portrays ruffles.

(Maybe one day, he'll not live in a crimson bloody world.

Today is not that day, but there is hope for it.)

"So are we going yet?" Squalo asks.

Luna grimaces; even she could tell that was rude.

* * *

Luna's not seriously traveled by sea except for brief trips with her father. There were magical means of travel, brief boating trips but nothing like traveling on the sea for hours on a small ship.

Luna does not have sea legs and is unlikely to acquire them without more exposure. She is thankfully not seasick.

Daemon is seasick, according to Nagi who is capable of sailing the ship without his assistance. Well, piloting it as the engine is doing all the work, so she's just keeping it on course.

Squalo seems to be enjoy the hours-long trip and rolls with the ship as if it's something he's been doing all his life. He seems to be happier and more at peace on the sea.

Or it might be the distance away from Hibari and the issues with the Emperor.

Luna's not seasick but she'd rather not fall off the boat by trying to walk. She has some banking to do. What were those routing numbers again?

* * *

The sun is starting its daily descent as Nagi brings the boat towards the pier and ties it up. There are a few people with red eyes who greet Nagi and even Daemon who is very grateful to be off the boat -to the point that he's not even being defensive about his seasickness.

There's a flurry of names, mostly Japanese with enough foreign ones tossed in to make it clear that they weren't mostly Japanese even after several generations. They don't have to go further than the beach to meet Tsuna though.

Nagi does the introduction, pulling Tsuna out of the game he's playing with the Shimon kids of all ages.

"Hi, I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi, nice to meet you." He introduces himself.

"Superbi Squalo, likewise." Squalo says, an annoyed note in his voice that says he'd rather be anywhere but here.

"Please call me Luna." She adds, "daughter of Xenophilus and Pandora."

"Nagi said you had something of my father's?" Sawada Tsunayoshi asks and it's almost like seeing a different Harry Potter, shaped by the image of Primo. A happier boy, but still a fragile boy.

"It belongs to his bloodline, but you're a bit young to have all the responsibilities that it entails." Luna clarifies.

"I'll be twelve in October," the fragile boy declares, as if years are any measure of competence and maturity. As if years are reasons. This is yearning for legacy, for a dead father's love.

"The Vongola are only allowed to inherit at sixteen at the earliest, but you can be named as Heir earlier." Squalo cuts in. "And you currently seem to lack the training that would teach you to be capable of managing the organization as it is. Do you even know how to fight?"

"If it's my duty, I'll do it." He says, resolute and solemn but the innocence is clear.

"And getting crushed by your responsibilities and killed by the Vongola's enemies is not the way to do it." Luna clarifies. "Your father was mafia, was part of the Vongola and died fighting Millefiore forces. Xanxus is currently running what we've rebuilt of it, but he's not Vongola and his better talents lie in directions other than management for all that we're doing more than getting by. Xanxus previously worked for the Millefiore, Byakuran scouted him out when he was younger than you and turned him into an assassin and weapon against his enemies." How much to push the boy? How much to share? "He did kill your father."

"He did?" Tsunayoshi's eyes go wide. Cracks in innocence show. Had he even been aware that Sawada Iemitsu was mafia?

"Yes, he thought you should know now before you decide. He's still a killer, but valuable to the Vongola, to the Varia, to the CEDEF. So that means you'll end up working with him until you know the ropes."

"Valuable?"

"It's a terrible way to think of people, for what they can do for you and yours and judge their value against what you like, dislike and think you do know and what you know from experience about what can be tolerated. People can tolerate a lot, like killing armies and more, but even then if something crosses a line, people act. At some point crimes outweigh the value of the criminal and if the government doesn't do anything, then it's up to vigilantes."

Where that line was to a dragon-kin is not something that Luna is willing to ask about. Non-human morals were tricky, especially considering the lack of the human ones for contrast since Xanxus missed getting raised with any at all beyond what was intrinsic. Most people aren't raised with criteria for who should be killed and why.

She has theories she refuses to entertain though.

"We're rather terrible at the vigilante-business, but we do try." She admits.

(Law agencies are meant to enforce the law on the average populace. A mad god is quite beyond the capabilities of the police, the military and aurors.

But even stars burn and mad gods are no different.)

"That is the main issue other than your education which can be somewhat adjusted for during the transition state, as the both of you would have to present a united front. It would be a trying two years at minimum, where you have to prove your strength and ability to those who wish to tear down what has been built. Beyond that, we've done some restructuring which Daemon is not familiar with, so should you decide to take on the legacy of the Vongola you should see to training and educating yourself starting now, because once you're sixteen, you either will or will never but there's nothing wrong with preparedness. Kill a mad god and the world goes mad and the world is more than just this island."

"I'll think about it." Tsuna admitted.

"You only have tonight; Squalo and I are leaving as soon as we're up in the morning."

Which Luna is hoping to be late enough for breakfast but soon enough that they could be half-way around the world by the time they stop for the night. Squalo likes to sleep in when he gets the chance, breakfast would be good and she'd rather get back to the Vongola, to the home she's made in the Underworld.

* * *

The Shimon and the children that are in seclusion with them live in a form of paradise. It's surreal, to not see decaying buildings. To not hear the noise of reconstruction of society as factions war and tear down the new growth.

Luna takes a walk on the beach and runs into one of the Shimon's children. He's sitting on the beach, watching the waves as the moon rises.

"Enma, right?" Because the red hair is distinctive, not the red of Ginny's hair Luna had braided when she and her had been smaller than Enma is now.

"Everything's going to change now, isn't it?"

"Everything is always changing. The fact that it feels like it means you're noticing it. Not even the sand here is unchanging, shifting and moving with the waves and the tide."

"Tsuna-kun's going to say yes." He states.

"Yes, that is very likely." Honor, obligation, duty, legacy, being deemed too weak and being offered a path to strength? Even if it means enduring your father's killer? When there's a ghost that has devoted himself to the Vongola and raised him as well, in an island paradise of peace while the world was mad and suffering?

She would have made a terrifying Slytherin, if her love of learning and dreams hadn't been more important to her before two wars, being a prisoner of each and escaping both prisons.

("We could rule the world together, my little moon."

"No, thank you." She says to the memory.)

"You knew that. Was what you said about Tsuna's father true?"

"That he was mafia? Yes. That Xanxus killed him? Also yes." There had been a fondness to Xanxus when he spoke of the fight that killed Sawada Iemitsu. "I rather like to make decisions with all the facts and figured that Tsuna would as well."

"What's he like?" Enma asks.

"He was a monster of a man, but he's learning to be gentle. He's that way because of the way he was raised, what he was trained to be and then he decided not to be a monster anymore. Monsters are clever, are powerful and kill many until they're eventually killed. That's the fate of monsters. He's changed from that, because what makes a monster a monster?"

The question hangs in the night sea air until the breeze blows it away.

"If you don't know what makes a monster a monster, then I'll tell you want makes a man a monster. Monsters don't feel doubt, only care about their power, have no consideration for others. The cleverest monsters pretend to, but only to better use you. Monsters don't feel love for friends, love for family, love for the world in general. They use that against those that do to control them. Those are the signs of a monster, of a tyrant." She adds.

("One should respect public opinion in so far as it is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny." She had told him long ago.

She understands that if you don't understand that you work for your subordinates, you know nothing of leadership. You only know of tyranny. A magazine like the Quibbler runs for its readers; not for bottom-line of profit. A voice of truth among the masses, long before Ginny had given Luna her courage.

There's more to the truth than just the facts.)

"It's not doing things that the world sees as criminal that makes a monster. People will always commit crimes. For need, for desperation, for the thrill. It's apathy for others that makes a monster."

"So why would a monster do anything like what you said he did now?"

(Xanxus' reasons are his own, but she knows her own clearly. An adaption of the truth because that is the truth of why, in a fashion for all of them.

They were three monsters of circumstance, having banded together; now they make their own circumstance and have trouble with humanity.

Humanity is hard, but making things better is a step towards that.

None of them are going to call it something like atonement, penance or making amends.

Salvation is theirs, if they wish to take it. No one ever said it was ever going to be easy.

A reclamation of what was lost never is.)

"Because it's a problem he can solve. Not because he feels sorry for us, not because he identifies with us, but because it's something he can solve and do. He just doesn't get why the rest of the world can't too. Primo's Impossible Quest is complete on finding a possible heir for the Vongola. Primo said nothing about making him or her heir, especially should they not want to."

Her smile sharpens, she can feel it. "So I'm going to tell him, 'no' and enjoy it."

"But Tsuna-kun..."

"He's going to go to the Vongola eventually. Legacies are tricky things that like to come back to you, even if you throw them to the sea."

(Sometimes the legacy is a bloody trail in the water, in the world, in the soul.

Blood and greed are more ubiquitous than death and taxes.)

* * *

"I believe that people call that fate." Daemon announces, making no footsteps on the sand. Nagi, is in bed, Luna presumes.

He settles down on the sand.

"Some people also call them chances and opportunities. Because once they're gone, you'll never get them back. I'm not fond of the idea that everything is scripted and fated to happen."

("Always remember, in an infinity of worlds, anything is not only possible, it's mandatory. My love, it's not a setback worth weeping about. Come back to bed with me.")

"When Tsuna-kun goes, I'm going with him." Enma says, before he walks off. "It's too dangerous to leave Tsuna-kun alone like that."  


Which leaves Luna and the living ghost of the Vongola's past on the beach.

"Some months ago, I took a walk and found this on the beach. I left it there and then by the next week I confiscated it from Tsuna because I knew it was dangerous. It's an appalling little stone. I can see why you tossed it away even though it's yours, Luna."

"It's a suicide stone, one that coerces its holder into dying. I'm not sure of it's effectiveness against you considering you're already dead."

"Dead and with little purpose you mean. My ideas and ideals for the Vongola saw it destroyed. I tried to correct for that but over a century of habit is hard to break and I do believe that Tsuna's suffered my ineptitude as a parental figure."

"He's a precious child, more fragile that I expected." Luna admits. "He could be strong, but the only person I knew that was like that walked to his death at seventeen, survived through some miracle and then did it again when he was eighteen. Except he didn't come back then. Death allows for second chances sometimes, but rarely does anyone get a third."

(Daemon's world is bathed in red and leaves stains. He's more anchored to sanity, but sanity is a passing phase of reasoning that's easily upset. Changed circumstances, nonsensical urge to confirm. Sanity is but a dream in a mad world.

Anything else would be a lie.)

"Innocence lost is a part of growing up." She adds. "Doesn't make it any less painful though."

Apparently this is enough to send Daemon to his feet.

"Have your suicide stone back and don't throw it away this time." Daemon snarks. "But if Tsuna decides to seek you out, know that I'll be back as well."

"I wouldn't expect you or Nagi anywhere else." Luna says as the moon reaches its zenith.

Then Luna returns to her bed.

* * *

The Shimon see her and Squalo off after breakfast; she had slept in later than Squalo. Hope, like all thestrals, is invisible to those who haven't seen death.

Hermione the dragon however gets far more appreciation for once and a lot less terror.

Hermione in her own way preens under the attention. She's too noticeable to get out much for a Box weapon.

Then they're off.

* * *

Hermione the dragon is very noticeable, so she has to fly higher and Luna lands Hermione somewhere on the coast that looks deserted.

Hermione is returned to the box.

"Any reason you're not riding this horse yourself?" Squalo asks, as he wheels Hope around to the ground.

"Thestrals are good at remembering locations and people. A dragon is distracting enough for them to not question the flying, selectively invisible horse."

"Huh," is the sound Squalo makes. "I feel terrible for anyone who has to negotiate with you."

Luna could say so as well but nothing feels so right as, "Old and dead men have nothing on a mad god that you have to outwit while being a prisoner. Much less stressful."

"If you say so." Squalo shrugs. "We gonna go on any time soon?"

"I'm expecting someone to show up soon."

"That Kawahira-creep?" Squalo suggests, only to curse as it comes to be.

"I object to being called a creep." Kawahira says as he materializes, in a flare of Mist Flames that don't let up -as if an aura is enough to chain Luna in place. "Talbot's solution is viable, should we find enough Flame users to start it up. If it's done with magic though, there's a chance of it warping that I cannot allow for the sake of the world."

"So you're going to restart the Arcobaleno system."

"Not immediately; Aria's death will revive the previous Arcobaleno, giving a grace period of ten to fifteen years, if another Sky is found."

"Still not listening," Luna says, chiding the Earthling. She knows he's not, even when she all but told him where and to who to look since she first realized what had to be. "Where are the Vindice when you need them?"

And like magic, three appear in a wreath of black Flames.

* * *

(The Vindice were the only thing that gave a mad god pause. Fearsome, terrifying and ruthless wardens of the most dangerous and inescapable prisons.

Byakuran had told her about them, how to circumvent the laws they enforced, how they appeared from one place to the next in black flames that even he couldn't replicate in his brilliance.

Portals are in the realm of science-fiction, but they have such possibilities. Especially considering some of the properties of Flames that a mad god in all his brilliance has told her before.

And Luna doubts their humanity, so human limits need not apply.)

* * *

"Bermuda, Checkerface is here." One of the Vindice whispers. Another portal opens up instantly, two Vindice also appearing. One is tiny, balanced on the shoulder of a more elaborately dressed Vindice.

Ranks. Organization. The Vendicare Prison and the Vindice are older than the mafia.

"Checkerface," the smaller hisses. "How dare you show your face? We will have our revenge!"

Squalo grabs her and takes her up in the air to witness the fight, such as it is.

She does what only seems sensible and starts recording it on her mirror.

* * *

It's not really much of a fight, but there's something off about the way the Vindice coordinate and move. How they regain vigor and so on.

She's not quite sure of what that means, but as Kawahira isolates the Vindice from each other under Real Illusions she begins to understand that the smallest Vindice is the source of those Black Flames.

So it's just him that she needs to target and convince.

He _is_ the one in control of the Vindice.

* * *

Squalo, for all that he's got her almost sitting side-saddle in front of him and is holding the reigns, is not nearly as in control of Hope as she is.

She gets Hope to start gliding down to the sound of Squalo's curses.

Hope lands.

"I do not appreciate the ambush." Kawahira admits.

"I do not appreciate people ignoring my advice."

"The former Arcobaleno are surprising but are nothing without this one." The Earthling points out, having captured the tiniest Vindice. "How did you ever figure out that they would want revenge and that I was responsible?"

"I don't listen to public opinion." She says. "Not more than I have to in order to avoid starvation and jail. Most of it focuses on how scary and fearsome they are, what is the nature of the Flame they use and never how such a Flame happened."

She draws herself up and takes herself back into dark memories and feels. Flames at their most basic instinctual use are based on immediate emotions and a solid purpose. She reaches for the Flames that burn clear and black for vengeance.

"Those that do know how, don't talk about them." She smiles then, something she knows is wild and makes her look truly such with her wind-tossed hair and utter lack of fear; there's no room for fear, an innate feature of this Flame. "So with your Arcobaleno system cursing and killing them, it's not surprising that they want revenge or monitor the most Flame-capable organizations for your targets so they could get to you. It only makes sense so they could get to you. These Flames would be your missing piece to Talbot's idea. As they've been around for over a century without deviating from their purpose, I thought that you could trust that."

She does not think of how terrible she is in making him look at his mistakes, at the twisted creations he's accidentally responsible for.

She thinks he is a coward and says so. She may not be able to force him physically, but his hope is hers to use and abuse.

This is his best chance at getting rid of the Arcobaleno system that he says he hates. That everyone hates.

So why is he such a coward to not even try it?

(Hope doesn't offer reassurance, but it does make you reconsider options when they've been forced in your face.)

* * *

She leaves a mirror for the Vindice; clearly she's going to have to coordinate things herself and that means actually talking to them as they clearly can't talk civilly with Kawahira.

Luna understands, but don't they know they can't all kill Kawahira? There's only one of him and many more of the Vindice.

Well, vengeance has never been rational but the whole world has been mad since she killed Byakuran.

(Even if you destroy an empire with sand doesn't mean you can destroy its ideas, its culture.

There's no doubt that the world is mad.)

* * *

"Sanity is tiring, Squalo." She murmurs to his back as Hope takes them away.

"Is that what you call that?"

"Sanity is also the biggest lie we tell ourselves."

"That I'll believe. Also, your mirror was still recording so I sent it on to Xanxus." He informs her, like Xanxus is not going to worry about that. Mother dragons are worse than mother hens; dragons breathe fire.

"Mukuro's going to make fun of my hair." She says instead.

"If you believe that." Words which make it clear he didn't believe that or her saying so.

"And I forgot to leave a mirror for the Shimon." She says with the right pitch to make it a whine.

"I left them mine." He tells her.

"Does Dino know?" She questions, invading his space some more so he could hear her over the rushing air.

"Sent him a message on it prior to wiping what was on there." A moment's pause, "VOI! What did you think Dino was sending me?!"

"More pictures of cake?" She asks, bewildered; she ends up having to yell it to be heard over the wind. "Because that did look yummy and I ordered one from him, using money from your Imperial Account?"

"How the hell did you even get the bank information?"

"Hacked Hibari's, then found yours."

Squalo makes this strangled sound in the back of his throat.

"It's okay Squalo, I've already taken out the sum you owe me for the Varia's reconstruction, sent an e-mail to the bank and the emperor about the account activity and so on."

Luna learns that Squalo can whimper.

Should she tell that she also upgraded the bank's electronic security so nobody else can do what she just did?

Maybe later.

* * *

The rest of the ride for the day is peaceful, they end up booking a room somewhere in Russia and Luna gets yelled at for recklessness by Neville as Basil had been filtering Xanxus' messages and just knocked the man out pre-emptively. He is not going to be happy about that.

Mukuro has sent her a collection of rants disguised as short video messages. Including one on what has she done with her hair.

Luna responds to this one with a picture of her taking a hairbrush to her hair. Squalo comes in with take-out and takes over brushing it as Luna's never gotten the hang of doing it herself.

Eh, she decides to send the Vindice verses Kawahira video to Aria -along with a copy of the Mukuro rant over her hair.

"By the way, are we cutting southwards to Sicily and avoiding the mountains? Because Vindicare is somewhere up there."

"If they wanted us, they'd just appear," Luna tells him.

"And that black flame?"

"The Dying Will Flame of Revenge; where that's the only thing you're living for. Because you must have it and you're not going to die before you get it."

"Sounds far less impressive like that."

"Better living through spite is possible, as I certainly prove."

"Most people prefer better living through chemistry."

"Store bought neurotransmitters and inhibitors are fine, but there's something about homemade that appeals to the soul."

"I have no idea what you meant there, but if that was some complicated proposition for the night, I'm not going to say no. Endorphins and all."

Luna examines the idea, finds it appealing and reaches up.

(This is her choice. Her wants.

Her reclamation of what she had lost.

The take-out doesn't get touched until some hours later.)

* * *

Xanxus, they discover, has learned about her involvement with the Vindice, with the Kawahira-creep and Daemon fucking Spade living it up with the Shimon and the Vongola's only viable heir for the Sky Ring. He's far from happy with it, but he's not raging.

She gives Squalo the evil eye for keeping Xanxus so updated, but it has no effect beyond making him smile and shrug showing off the love-bites on his collar bone.

But Basil has Xanxus so out of it with Rain Flames that the emotional responses aren't registering properly, logic has gone to the fwoopers and he's pretty much drunk; inhibited responses, judgement and so on.

Well that's what Neville reports, as somehow he has ended up in charge with Basil making sure that Xanxus isn't doing something too stupid while impaired. Mukuro's been speaking about the evils and wonders of blackmail so Neville's not sure if Mukuro's been recording all of it or not, because it's Xanxus who is a former mafia assassin turned vigilante. Neville sounds far too amused about the whole thing.

Mukuro still has his Ethics Committee and Squalo ends up needing her mirror to make sure Bianchi hasn't killed too many people. Well poisoned, as that's the same thing more or less. The main victim has apparently been Shamal, who has survived and has been gaining increasing immunity according to Bianchi.

"Ah, maybe we should head straight there instead of around the mountains." She thinks aloud, to see what Squalo says. Being so Flame-drunk is likely not good for Xanxus. She's not sure if anything has been done in regards of Vongola business. Neville is a friend, but organization and running one was not his strong-suit. Yes, he founded Haven, had built it but he did not run it or else his visits would be far fewer.

"And maybe you shouldn't have bit so high up on my neck. This is going to show up no matter what I wear, unless it's a scarf and then it's more blatantly obvious."

"I do remember encouragement for that," she replies.

"I think I would have said anything to make you stop teasing." He rolls his eyes.

"Hmm, probably not but we could test it again?"

"Once out of Russia. We've probably ended up on some government watch list already, so the long way wouldn't be too bad. It's Russia." He explains with a shrug.

"It's not like we're on a time table. A break would be a good thing to take." Luna admits.

* * *

It's about a week later that they return to the Vongola in time for the evening meal -which is pretty late.

Squalo has given up on hiding the love bites at all in his normal clothing, considering how colorful his neck and shoulders look after a week of experimentation. Instead he's wearing a roll-neck jumper, complaining that it's too warm with a jacket and feeling too exposed without said armored jacket. She ends up putting a cooling charm on it, if only to stop him from complaining.

Not that Squalo's always been wearing that much this past week. Neither has Luna.

It was a nice little break from reality, they both agreed, but not meant to last or linger.

There're concerns called out and a happy reunion, for all that the mirror calls have kept them in touch.

After that they settle in almost like they haven't been gone for so long. The table's crowded with everyone, plates are full and Neville's plant gets its customary drink. She had missed this.

"Stop enabling that plant." Mukuro pleads, as Neville pours a glass of wine for it.

"That's gotta be cannibalism of some sort." Ken adds.

"Wine is a by-product of grapes so it is in the fruit food group." Chikusa says. "Plants are clearly carnivores and cannibals, by gaining nutritional value from decaying organic material within the soil."

"Oh, fuck, why did I miss you nutcases?" Squalo bemoans as he lowers his head to cradle it in his hands.

"Stockholm syndrome?" Both Luna and Xanxus offer as one.

"Makes as much sense as anything." Squalo complains. "The world is mad as our favorite lunatic keeps telling us."

* * *

Luna follows Xanxus as he leaves the dining room and heads to his claimed bedroom.

"This is..." He looks unsure. Oh, she had forgotten about that. This attraction and connection and _oh_. This could be a glorious mess.

"Have you spoken to Primo?" She hates to ask, but it must be known.

"Told him that his only possible heir was eleven and with the Shimon so he's going to have to deal with me for the next few years. If he's any good if and should he come here, I'll pass the ring on early so I don't have to listen to the bitching and do the ceremonial shit later."

"Damn and here I wanted to do it myself."

"According to Squalo, you're the CEDEF Head. You have a say, traditionally."

"Yes, there's that. No matter what a dead man says. They're dead and I'm glad of it." It's too vehement in some ways, but still correct. No matter who she was referring to.

A period of silence passes.

"It's not been the same here. The herd has missed you, the mutts too." Xanxus says, awkward with what he says but not what he means.

"I'm glad to be back." She smiles as she says it. She can feel herself tearing up and apologizes for it. Even as he pulls her into a hug.

"Primo and his impossible demands can fuck off. This world is for the living to decide things, not the dead."

"And life is to be lived, not in guilt. So if you want my forgiveness, just know that you've already received it." She tells him, even as he freezes in place. He only pulls her in closer and squeezes more once he recovers.

"That bastard didn't deserve you. Neither do I, for not stopping-"

"Deserving or not are just ideas that dead people put in our heads. Unnecessary tyranny. The living think and want and I think that I'll want you, soon."

"Soon?"

"Neither of us are really ready for such a relationship. Too much to do, too much to work out in our heads and hearts."

"Seal the promise with a kiss?" He asks slyly.

"Certainly." Luna agrees and the kiss is heavy and intense from the start, as awkward as the difference in their height makes it. A kiss full of promise and heady resolve, and far too greedy. A hunger from both making it hard to do more than kiss and grip at each other.

And it really would be far too easy to be led further into Xanxus' rooms, to be devoured, but her point stands and so Luna wants. But not letting him know... he deserves to know, even if she could so easily hide it.

"I fucked Squalo earlier today."

"I figured that would happen at one point, the two of you off together." He pulls her closer and sits them down on the couch, as her legs spread because of the position. She feels blood rushing to her face and pooling low, swelling already swollen tissue. "Reclaiming your sexuality for yourself, instead of letting a dead man keep it in his grave."

The kisses must be making it hard to think, she remembers thinking.

"Take if you want, take everything." He says to her, holding her hand and bringing it up to where his heart lay beating. "It's been yours since I first realized how strong you were, back when he tried to break you and only set you free."

"Dragon heart-string is valuable for wands," she breathes out, as a hand reaches down to his belt.

"Oh, is that what you're after? What happened to sorting out our heads and hearts?"

"Easier with data," she says before she curses his belt and takes both hands to it. She wrangles it open and tears it out of the belt loops before tossing it somewhere. "But if we get in bed and you're as good as you think, I'm never letting you leave mine."

"Well, if that wasn't exactly what I was thinking..."

(They conspicuously fail to make it to the bedroom, Luna notes with amusement.)

* * *

It's not quite light when they wake, share a lazy kiss and separate.

For all that went unsaid, they both knew that neither are ready for a relationship.

The more official reason is that as the CEDEF Boss, having sex with the head of the Vongola is unprofessional.

(The mafia is odd about things like that and _some_ propriety has to be observed.)

* * *

Luna reviews the data and numbers in person for the first time in ages and figures that she could borrow people from the general Vongola, Mukuro's Ethics' Committee and a few of the less capable Varia that Squalo might be willing to part with and she could actually have enough people to run the CEDEF she wants to start up again.

But first they need a building, supplies and to carve a territory out. Palermo had been the CEDEF's port of residence since Aluade, but there's no reason to not stop, to not go further and start rebuilding around where the new CEDEF building will be.

The landscaping in Palermo has always been the most twisted to the north, it being the poorest section of the city and most haphazardly built.

If one couldn't take the time and effort to help others, that wasn't really living.

Luna could do a lot with her money, the CEDEF's money.

* * *

The old building has been comprehensively destroyed. Even years later, there are marks that make who destroyed such a building so obvious.

Byakuran must have loved pitting Xanxus against the Vongola and its people. She has the impression that Xanxus likely was Vongola and an enemy that he hadn't managed to kill in so many worlds if he went against her one-time guard personally. Not without trickery and cleverness prepared well in advance.

She's going to have to arrange for remnants to be removed, building crews and more. In a city, in the business district, magic isn't possible until the walls are up to ensure secrecy.

'Might be cheaper to buy and renovate existing building,' Luna sends him in a text. And then a picture after that. Several of them.

'Vaporize the leftovers?' She gets as a response.

'Believability low.'

'We have Mukuro and other Mists.'

'Order or convince them as needed; lot of moving parts for such an illusion. Vehicles, people, noise.' Luna responds. She may have never used machines to build with, but she knew enough to know that they were needed to take trash out and move dirt around to make things level.

'Finding Mists today. Place orders for your building supplies, will burn down on Sunday; practically no one should be in the offices.'

Well, at least she could start building soon.

* * *

Luna ends up nominated as the godmother of Aria's little girl.

Aria names her Selene, after the moon.

Luna fails at not being touched to tears.

* * *

If rebuilding the CEDEF building from scratch has taught her anything, it's that she really hates the city's bureaucracy, the blustering and the corruption within it.

She does eventually get a copy of what the northern part of Palermo had looked like, before all those slipshod buildings went up as tenement housing in the 80s.

Of course not everything is perfect, as her people still need to be trained, get into the places they need to and so on. People only put so much information online, if they do take steps to secure their own computers. So actual infiltrators are needed too.

And practically everyone has complained at her use of such bright colors. Luna finds them invigorating and so much better than stark white and painted-over steel.

"Luna, that wall is neon." Neville points out to her on one of his visits from Haven to her and the Vongola. "It is hurting my good eye."

"I have plans for that wall."

"More paint?"

"Oh yes, plain walls are boring, colors are better but decorations are the best."

"If you say so Luna."

* * *

Time seems to skip along and some things become normal. From giving Neville's plant the wine that wasn't all drank at dinner to the Varia actually becoming profitable instead of just breaking even-ish for so long as they reach up Quality. Neville's comings and goings, Fluffy's twin-headed part wolf puppies have had puppies of their own and the thestral herd has grown large enough that she's running out of saints to name them after.

There are regular spats over Basil who has all the secretary and people skills that Luna and Xanxus lack. Squalo's comments on how they should do something about the sexual tension and frustration are not appreciated; especially if he mentions things like custody battles since it gives people ideas.

The time that Luna had Chikusa as secretary is not to be discussed, nor what happened at Bianchi and Shamal's wedding.

Also not to be discussed is the situation with the Vindice, Kawahira and so on.

They ended the Arcobaleno system, Aria is freed of her Curse and Selene will never bear it; a sea urchin isn't here, as Byakuran said that her mother made a poor replacement for Yuni who never fought for herself or her famiglia as Aria refused to be a tragic doll from the start. It isn't easy, but the Vongola among its branches, the Cavallone and the Giglio Nero do have a vested interest in starting up this new system. The Vongola and Mare Rings are important after all, even now.

Squalo refers to it as 'the day the loli grew up' but most of them refer to it as 'the day Squalo got a pair of black eyes from Aria' instead of the day the Arcobaleno Curse was broken. The only Arcobaleno they knew was Aria, although Aria shared some details of the others before their death.

Also not discussed but commonly bemoaned is the fact that Mukuro and his Ethics committee decide to take over the country through legal means and killing any mafioso that tries to dislodge him and his people.

The good fallout from that is that Luna no longer has to apply for various building permits all the time. The bad news that Mukuro is actually very good at enforcing the law as he sees it.

And then, nearly two years after first seeing Sawada Iemitsu's son, he shows up with Nagi, a boy who favors the sushi chef and Enma at the Vongola. Judging by the explosions she heard earlier and the lingering smell of gunpowder, they had met Bianchi's brother at the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Terribly late update. Blame Daemon; there was a lot of creepy stuff that I decided to cut out in favor of Hibari -like nearly 4k words worth of creepy. Since Daemon is not a main character in this fic, he shouldn't get so much attention so things were re-worked and I like this version a lot better.
> 
> Mainly because I finally got the rest of the story to flow.


End file.
